If you haven’t heard the name Katie Ledecky by now, you either haven’t been on social media lately or haven’t been following the Olympics at all!
Well, long story short, Katie Ledecky is a member of the U.S. Women’s Olympic Swimming Team and she is now one of the most decorated female Olympians in US history!
At 27 years old, the Bethesda, MD native is widely regarded as the greatest female distance swimmer of all time!
She excels to such a degree at her signature event, the 1500-meter freestyle, that she claimed gold this week finishing an entire 10 seconds faster than the competitor who came in second place! In fact, if you search the top 20 fastest times in this race in the history of women’s swimming, Katie Ledecky is responsible for all 20 of those times.
How did Katie Ledecky break Olympic history?
After retaining her Olympic title in the 1500-meter this week, Katie Ledecky becomes the first-ever female swimmer to win gold medals at four different Olympic games!
- 1 gold medal in the London 2012 Games (when she was only 15 years old!)
- 4 gold medals and 1 silver medal at the Rio 2016 Games
- 2 gold medals and 2 silver medals at the Tokyo 2020 Games
- 1 gold medal and 1 bronze medal at the Paris 2024 Games (So far, at the time of writing – there are two more events that she could medal in.)
Ledecky currently has a total of 12 Olympic medals, which is tied for the most medals won by a U.S. female Olympian – tied with Jenny Thompson, Dara Torres, and Natalie Coughlin.
What other events does Katie Ledecky have remaining?
Ledecky has two more events she could claim a medal in:
- The women’s 4 x 200-Meter Freestyle Relay on Thursday, August 1st at 4:03 pm Eastern Time.
- The second heat of the women’s 800-Meter Freestyle is on Friday, Aug. 2, at 5:52 am – If she qualifies for the finals in this event, the race will take place on Saturday, Aug. 3, at around 3:08 pm.