For Katie Ledecky, there is seemingly no such thing as burnout.
Sure, there are times when it all gets a bit monotonous, staring at that black line at the bottom of the pool, turning lap after interminable lap with nothing on the line.
Yet, a dozen years after she burst on the scene with a surprising gold medal at the London Olympics, Ledecky keeps finding ways to enjoy swimming as much as ever.
The times may not be quite as fast. But the ultimate payoff is staying on top year after year, Olympics after Olympics, even as other swimmers struggle to deal with the mental and physical demands of a grueling sport that only provides once-every-four-years gratification.
“I pride myself on that consistency,” the 27-year-old Ledecky said. “I challenge myself to stay consistent. Yeah, I mean sometimes it can be tough feeling like you’re not having a breakthrough. But to be really consistent is something I’m really happy with. I’ve learned to just really enjoy each day of training and take in every moment and just appreciate the fact that I’ve been able to have this long of a career, stay injury free, stay pretty healthy, be able to do this for this many years.”
Perhaps the greatest freestyle swimmer history, Ledecky heads to her fourth Olympics in a familiar role.
A gold-medal favorite. The focus of so much attention. The template for sustained excellence.
“Such a big influence,” said fellow American swimmer Erin Gemmell, who has looked up to Ledecky much of her life and will be joining her as an Olympic teammate. “I don’t think I would really be here if it weren’t for her.”
Gemmell’s father used to coach Ledecky. Young Erin once dressed up as Ledecky for Halloween. They’ve spent so much time together at the pool, Gemmell has had a unique perspective on Ledecky’s tedious brilliance.
“It’s really special to be able to be that close to someone who is so inspirational, getting to see the day-to-day work that they put in,” Gemmell said. “It makes it seem more achievable, in a way, being so close. It makes them seem a lot more human.”
Ledecky isn’t as dominant as she once was, but she’ll definitely be the swimmer to beat in the two longest freestyle events, covering 800 and 1,500 meters. She already has six individual gold medals, the most of any female swimmer in Olympic history.
“Every athlete, as they get older, has to learn new ways to set goals, learn new ways to evaluate the results,” Ledecky said.
In many ways, she’s still driven by her very first Summer Games, where she burst on the scene at 15 with a gold medal in the 800 freestyle. She provides further perspective on that experience in her new book, “Just Add Water, My Swimming Life.”
“I wanted to get back to that level, prove that I wasn’t just a one-hit wonder,” Ledecky said. “At the same time, I reminded myself that anything more than that is just like icing on the cake, the cherry on top, because, I just never thought I’d make it to that one Olympics.”
All these years later, after all those trips to the top of the medal podium, she feels much the same way.
“That’s the perspective that I’ve be able to maintain and that keeps me focused and keeps me enjoying the sport so much, enjoying the teammates and the people that are around me,” Ledecky said.
She’s an old soul, for sure.
Even in her teens, Ledecky had young swimmers looking up to her.
“I was definitely an annoying child,” Gemmell said, grinning. “But I think she was just so welcoming to a little 7-year-old fan. When I think about it, she was only a sophomore in high school at the time. I think if someone had acted like that towards me when I was a sophomore in high school, I would have been really weirded out. But she was kind and welcoming with all of it.”
Eight years ago in Rio de Janeiro, Ledecky turned in one of the greatest performance in swimming history.
She took gold in the 200, 400 and 800 freestyle with a pair of world records (the 1,500 was not yet an Olympic event for women, or she undoubtedly would’ve won that, too). For good measure, she anchored the U.S. to a gold in the 4×200 free relay with a time that was more than a second faster than anyone else in the final.
Five years later in Tokyo, the rest of the world began to catch up in the shorter races. For the first time, she was beaten in an individual race when Australia’s Ariarne Titmus took gold in the 400. Ledecky didn’t even reach the podium in the 200, settling for fifth.
Ledecky doesn’t plan to swim the 200 free in Paris even though she won that event at the U.S. Olympic trials. She’s a definite underdog in the 400 free, where Titmus and Canadian phenom Summer McIntosh would appear to have the upper hand. McIntosh might even give Ledecky a run for the gold in the 800 free — an event Ledecky has won at the last three Olympics — after beating her at a low-level meet this year.
True to form, Ledecky shrugs off her rivals. She’s always looking inward, seeking ways to improve, and that monthlong gap between the trials and the Olympics is her favorite time of all. She can retreat to the anonymity of the training pool, where she feels most at home.
“My goals are not to be the first person to do this, to be the first person to do that and join this person and this person as the only ones that have done this,” Ledecky said. “My goals are very time focused and splits focused and technically focused.”
It may not sound all that exciting to those on the outside, but it helps Ledecky feel much the same way as she did a dozen years ago, when she was that 15-year-old kid heading to her first Olympics.
Burnout?
Not a chance.
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AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games
