Katie Ledecky is on The 100 Most Influential People List of TIME Magazine.
Kathleen Genevieve Ledecky (born March 17, 1997) is an American competition swimmer, Olympic gold medalist, and nine-time world champion. She is the current world record-holder in the 400-, 800-, and 1,500-meter freestyle (long course). She also holds the fastest-ever times in the 500-, 1000-, and 1,650-yard freestyle events. (a)
Nineteen-year-old Katie Ledecky has emerged as a once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon, breaking multiple world records in races short and long. What’s her secret? asks Robert Sullivan. (b)
What’s Katie Ledecky’s Secret?
One of the reasons it is difficult to see precisely what makes Katie Ledecky perhaps the greatest athlete in America, and maybe the planet, is that when she comes out of her house it is dark, as in very dark, as in 4:25 in the morning. Naturally, conversation at this hour is limited: The swimmer is under the hood of her parka and savoring those last few moments before the 5:00 a.m. plunge, while her father, David Ledecky, who is ferrying her to practice, is DJ-ing a little classic rock, as fathers driving their nineteen-year-old daughters anywhere typically do.
Ninety minutes and thousands of strokes later, at the pool at Georgetown Prep, in Bethesda, Maryland, where Ledecky trains six days a week, it’s easy to spot the swimmer who has broken her own world record in the 800-meter freestyle an astounding four times since 2013.
Her fans (and they are legion, and they are swimming in high school pools the world over) see her as the poster woman for optimistic self-discipline, with 20 to 25 hours per week in the pool and about five hours of work in the gym. An example of this work ethic: In 2014, she tells me, achieving her world-record-setting mile speed was not only not easy but painful—she drove herself very hard to win. “That hurt,” she says. She kept pushing herself, though. “Now my speed from 2014 becomes my easy speed.”
This is the extent of her secret weaponry: a devotion to practice, to superhuman goals achieved with a low-key, family-supported routine, one that involves watching CNN after dinner and maybe a little on-demand SNL while doing all the big reading for school on the weekend, so she can get to bed by nine-thirty. “She’s extraordinarily ordinary in some respects,” says her older brother, Michael, 21, a senior at Harvard and an editor for the Crimson. “I mean, the way she carries herself, the way she goes about things—there’s no drama or anything like that. She’s just always very dialed-in and doesn’t let the extraneous things, whether it’s expectations or anything else, get in her way.” Katie credits the dozens of Stratego games she played against Michael in London before her swims with preparing her mentally for her Olympic gold, and cites his diligence as her inspiration. “I’ve always looked up to my brother, for how hard he works,” she says. “I started swimming with him, and we had a lot of fun.”
“As far as I’m concerned, the bigger story is that she’s a better person than she is a swimmer,” Gemmell continues. “We all know she’s a pretty good swimmer, but she’s just a better person.”
“Her strength is not in any physical attribute,” says Gemmell. “It’s not even in any particular technique. It’s in her overwhelming desire to do what she needs to do to get better.”
Poised for stardom in Rio, Katie Ledecky shies away from spotlight (c)
She might be one of the world’s greatest swimmers, but everything else about her seems downright ordinary.
There is zero interest in the spotlight, just an insatiable desire to keep going faster in the pool.
The 19-year-old doesn’t have a driver’s license yet, perfectly content to ride to practices and meets with her parents. She enjoys playing board games; no video games for her. She’s worked with a charity that collects bicycles and ships them to developing countries. She’s a big fan of Bruce Springsteen, despite the generation gap.
Talk about a parent’s dream.
When someone brings up the idea of becoming a big star away from the pool — anyone up for show called “Kickin’ It With the Ledeckys?” — Katie and her father erupt in laughter.
“Yeah, that’ll happen,” the swimmer said, rolling her eyes.
“You’ve got to get to know us a little better,” David Ledecky interjected.
“They can come watch us play a game of Scrabble,” Katie added. “That’s about it.”
So, what makes Ledecky so special?
“I don’t know if I would call it a competitive streak in her, but I think there’s a lot of determination,”
David Ledecky said. “I always like to give credit to her grandparents. I think all four of her grandparents are pretty special people.”
Katie comes from a family where high achievement is expected. Her father is an attorney. Her mother, Mary Gen Ledecky, was a top college swimmer. Her older brother, Michael, will be graduating from Harvard next month.
In the fall, Katie will head off to Stanford to begin her college life, a transition she delayed a year to prepare for the Olympics, though she did take a couple of classes this past fall at Georgetown — History of China and Comparative Political Systems — just to stay in somewhat of an academic frame of mind. She is still pondering what her major might be, mentioning history and psychology as possibilities.
“Not surprisingly, I get asked to do a lot of talks on her,” her coach said. “When I’m preparing to do the talk, I always say to my wife, half-kiddingly, that I want to say, `She works her ass off and she’s tough as nails. Does anybody have any questions?’ My wife is like, `They probably won’t pay you for an hour’s talk to say that.”‘
Turning serious, Gemmell struggles to find the words to explain Ledecky’s success.
“She has a real desire to get better,” he finally said. “In some ways, I think it’s as simple as that.”
Nothing too flashy, that’s for sure.
Which seems just right for Ledecky. It’s just not her style.
Well, except in the pool.
Further Reading:
Vogue Magazine (b)
NBC Sports (c)