Ledecky, Katie

Katie Ledecky, byname of Kathleen Genevieve Ledecky, (born March 17, 1997, Washington, D.C., U.S.), American swimmer who was one of the sport’s dominant freestylers in the early 21st century, breaking numerous records. She won 10 Olympic medals, 7 of which were gold.

Ledecky made her first splash in international swimming after her freshman year at Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart in Bethesda, Maryland, when she set an Olympic-trials record in the 800-metre freestyle to qualify for the 2012 London Games as the youngest member of the U.S. Olympic swimming team. At the Games she set an American record en route to the gold medal in the 800 metres. The following year Ledecky set her first world records in the 800 metres (8 minutes 13.86 seconds) and 1,500 metres (15 minutes 36.53 seconds) at the 2013 Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA) world championships. In addition to the golds that she won in those two events, Ledecky earned a gold medal in the 400-metre freestyle and as a member of the 4 × 200-metre relay team, and she won the FINA Trophy as the highest-scoring overall female swimmer at the world championships.

In June 2014 Ledecky bettered her own records in the 800 metres (8 minutes 11 seconds) and the 1,500 metres (15 minutes 34.23 seconds), and at the U.S. national championships in early August she set a global standard in the 400-metre freestyle with a time of 3 minutes 58.86 seconds, thus becoming the first female swimmer since American Janet Evans to hold simultaneous world records for the 400-, 800-, and 1,500-metre distances. At the 2014 Pan Pacific Championships, Ledecky became the first woman to capture four individual golds in that competition by winning the 200-, 400-, 800-, and 1,500-metre freestyle events, and she claimed another gold in the 4 × 200-metre relay. She also broke her own world marks in the 1,500 metres (15 minutes 28.36 seconds) and the 400 metres (3 minutes 58.37 seconds).

Katie Ledecky

The 6-foot- (1.83-metre-) tall Ledecky continued her stellar performance at the 2015 FINA world championships. She captured gold medals in five events (the 200-, 400-, 800-, and 1,500-metre freestyle and the 4 × 200-metre relay) and earned a place in history as the only person to have won four individual freestyle swimming distances in a single world championship or Olympic competition. She also set a world record three times—in the 800-metre final (8 minutes 7.39 seconds) and twice in the 1,500 metres (15 minutes 27.71 seconds in the heats and then 15 minutes 25.48 seconds in the final).

She put on a dominant showing at the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games, where she captured four gold medals (the 200-, 400-, and 800-metre freestyle and the 4 × 200-metre relay) and one silver (4 × 100-metre freestyle relay). Moreover, she set world records in the 400- and 800-metre races (3 minutes 56.46 seconds and 8 minutes 4.79 seconds, respectively), and the 800-metre final saw Ledecky take almost two seconds off the record time as she finished more than 11 seconds faster than her nearest competitor.

At the 2017 world championships, Ledecky won five gold medals (the 400-, 800-, and 1,500-metre freestyle as well as the 4 × 100- and 4 × 200-metre freestyle). However, she suffered an unexpected loss in the 200 metres, having to settle for silver. At a meet in 2018, Ledecky bettered her previous world record in the 1,500 metres, finishing in 15 minutes 20.48 seconds. Later that year she competed at the Pan Pacific Championships, winning gold medals in the 400-, 800-, and 1,500-metre races. She also captured one silver (4 × 200-metre freestyle) and one bronze (200-metre freestyle). Illness limited her participation at the 2019 world championships, though she managed to win gold in the 800-metre freestyle and silver in both the 400 metres and the 4 × 200-metre relay. She entered the 2020 Tokyo Olympics (which were actually held in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic) as one of the favourites, and she won the 800- and 1,500-metre freestyle; it was the first time that women had competed in the latter event at the Olympics. However, in the 400 metres she suffered her first loss in an individual race at the Games, finishing in second place. In addition, she won a silver in the 4 × 200-metre relay. In 2021 Ledecky graduated from Stanford University.