Katie Ledecky is a champion American swimmer. Ledecky has set world records in the women’s 400-, 800-, and 1,500-meter freestyle events. © Jae C. Hong, AP Photo

Two swimmers raced neck and neck down the lane in the women’s 400-meter freestyle in Tokyo, Japan, for the 2020 Summer Olympic Games. Representing America was Katie Ledecky. She received a silver medal, hitting the wall just 0.67 seconds after Australian swimmer Ariarne Titmus. Hope was not lost for Ledecky. Just one hour after a fifth place finish in the 200-meter freestyle on July 27, 2021, she dove back into the pool for the 1,500-meter freestyle finals. In a shining example of stamina, Ledecky snatched the gold medal in the longest race in the pool and the first time women competed that distance in the Olympic Games.

Ledecky is a champion American swimmer. Ledecky set world records in the 800-meter and 1,500-meter women’s freestyle races in 2013, and a world record in the 400-meter freestyle race in 2014. She later broke each record at least once. Ledecky was a star of the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She won individual gold medals in the 200-meter, 400-meter, and 800-meter races, setting world records in the last two events. She also won a gold medal as a member of the 800-meter freestyle relay and a silver medal as a member of the 400-meter freestyle relay.

Ledecky first gained international recognition in 2012. In that year she was the surprise winner of the gold medal in the 800-meter freestyle at the age of 15 at the Summer Olympic Games in London. She was the youngest American athlete to participate in the 2012 games. Ledecky won 4 gold medals at the 2013 FINA World Swimming Championships in Barcelona, Spain, and 5 gold medals at the 2015 championships in Kazan, Russia. FINA is the world governing body for the sport of swimming. At the 2017 championships in Budapest, Hungary, Ledecky won 5 more gold medals. She won another gold medal at the 2019 championships in Gwangju, South Korea. Her total of 15 career gold medals is a record for women swimmers.

Kathleen Genevieve Ledecky was born in Washington, D.C., on March 17, 1997. She became a national swimming star in high school in Bethesda, Maryland. She set American records in the 500-meter freestyle twice, and the national high school record in the 200-meter freestyle twice. Following the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, Ledecky entered Stanford University on an athletic scholarship. In 2018, Ledecky announced that she was turning professional. Her decision meant she would be ineligible to swim in college events, but she would still be eligible for the Olympic Games.