Katie Ledecky Tears Up During the 400 Free Press Conference After
After the 400 free final in Paris, Katie Ledecky had a news conference where she discussed her 400 free effort that earned her the bronze medal.
“I’m thankful for the opportunity to have won a medal in such a strong field. I’m also appreciative of the effort I put in, pleased with the medal, and excited for my upcoming races,” Ledecky stated.
“I know it’s in there, but I don’t feel like I’ve put together the 400 that I’m capable of lately.”
Ledecky continued, describing how she trained alongside athletes like Bobby Finke and Kieran Smith. She became emotional as she talked about the influence these athletes had on her.
I get to spend every day with Bobby, Kieran, my coaches, and everyone else that encourages and believes in me. It’s simply a really great bunch, and that’s why I love the sport so much. I think my confidence today is a credit to them.
Why Is Katie Ledecky a Good Swimmer?
The seven-time Olympic gold medallist discusses how she keeps focused when swimming 1,900 kilometers a year, as well as the doping allegations made against her rivals as she gets ready for the Paris Games.
Katie Ledecky appeared unconcerned about getting across the pool long before she was winning gold medals and breaking world marks.
She stopped perhaps ten times along the lane line during her first race, a 25-meter freestyle, to clear her goggles, blow her nose, or simply to take a quick look around. But something inside her ignited as she saw her rivals speeding by. She released her grip. She charged forward with arms like windmills and came in second.
“Just trying hard,” was her response when he questioned if she was “just trying to finish.” Ms. Ledecky came away from the conversation with a sort of slogan that she has carried with her as she finalizes plans for the summer Olympics in Paris: Great. Hard. Just attempting to get done.
In the family-friendly, woodland surroundings of Palisades Swim & Tennis Club in Cabin John, Maryland, close to Washington, she swam for a lot of her early swimming sessions. In 2014, two years after winning her first Olympic gold medal, she attended her last meeting at the club. Her new memoir, “Just Add Water,” which releases on Tuesday, begins with the chapter “Palisades.” She still finds that the club’s pool is her favorite spot to swim.
I had lunch with Ms. Ledecky, who is now 27 years old, recently in her hometown of Bethesda, Maryland. She had became the first swimmer to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the country, the day before at the White House. During the event, President Biden remarked, “Katie, age is just a number, kid,” after mentioning that some people thought 27 was too old for an Olympic swimmer.
Regarding the 81-year-old president’s comment, Ms. Ledecky remarked, “It took me a minute to process that joke.”
A grilled chicken salad was her order. That morning, she had already completed 5,600 meters, or 224 lengths, of swimming, and she had another session coming up. She calculated that she swims approximately 37 miles, or over 65,000 yards, per week. That’s 1,900 miles a year, which equates to gazing at the black line that runs across a pool’s bottom for eternity.
The effort has not gone in vain. Ten Olympic medals, seven of them gold, and twenty-six World Championship medals, 21 of them gold, have been earned by Ms. Ledecky. In the 800-meter freestyle, she has finished in the top 25, and in the 1,500, she has finished in the top 25.
The hours Ms. Ledecky spends gazing down at the black line are everything from dull. Within reason, the repetition encourages innovation. She tunes out the stresses of daily life and concentrates on every aspect of every stroke, including how her hand enters the water, how she turns, and how she breaths. Furthermore, the methods are by no means isolated or robotic.
“I believe that there are individuals who are unaware that we take breaks on the wall to converse with our teammates and enjoy some music,” the woman stated. “Just going back and forth, flipping at every wall, and staring at a black line doesn’t feel like it’s too monotonous.”
Ms. Ledecky won the 800 freestyle and came second in the 400-meter freestyle at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. That year, the 1,500 freestyle became a new Olympic event for women, and she won it by more than four seconds over the runner-up.
She had placed fifth in the 200 freestyle just an hour prior to that race; it was the first Olympic event in Ms. Ledecky’s career in which she failed to take home a medal.
Regarding the addition of the 1,500 freestyle to her Olympic program, she remarked, “I don’t think I fully recognized how challenging that was in the moment.” “I believe I was simply unaware of that and believed I could handle everything.”
In Tokyo, Ms. Ledecky served as the anchor for the US 4×200 freestyle relay. China broke the previous world record by winning by 0.4 seconds, with the Americans coming in second.
China’s victory in the relay is not as noteworthy as it first appeared. The New York Times revealed in April that seven months prior to the Tokyo Games, 23 elite Chinese swimmers—two of whom were on the winning relay team—had tested positive for the powerfully prohibited drug trimetazidine.
