Katie Ledecky

Born in Bethesda, Maryland on March 17, 1997, Kathleen Genevieve ‘Katie’ Ledecky has been one of the dominant female freestyle swimmers of the early twenty-first century. She has won 10 Olympic medals, seven of which are gold, and 18 World Championship medals, 15 of which are gold, and holds world records in the 800 metres and 1500 metres freestyle events.

Ledecky made her international debut at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London as the youngest member of the US team, aged 15. Despite her tender years, she swam 8:14.63 in the final of the 800 metres freestyle to win the gold medal, smashing the Americas record, which has stood for 23 years, in the process.

Four years later, at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, she won five more medals, gold in the 200-metres freestyle, 400-metres freestyle, 800-metres freestyle and 4 x 200-metres freestyle relay and silver in the 4 x 100-metres freestyle relay. In so doing, she set new world records in both the 400-metres freestyle and 800-metres freestyle. Indeed, in the latter event, she swam 8:04.79, taking 1.89 seconds off her own world record, set the previous January, and finishing 11.36 seconds ahead of her nearest rival, Jazmin Carlin of Great Britain. Not altogether surprisingly, that record still stands.

So, too, does her 1500-metres freestyle world record, which she set in her preliminary heat at the TYR Pro Swim Series in Indiapolis in 2018. Again, her winning time of 15:20.48 took exactly five seconds off her own world record, set at the World Aquatics Championships in Kazan, Russia three years earlier.

At the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Ledecky won two more gold medals, in the 800-metres freestyle and 1500-metres, but suffered her first defeat in an individual Olympic event when second to Australian Ariarne Titmus in the final of the 400-metres freestyle. She also collected another silver medal in the 4 x 200-metres freestyle relay.