The Untold Truth Of Katie Ledecky

Katie Ledecky isn't just an Olympian; she's one of the most gifted athletes in the world. The swimmer wowed the world in 2012 when she competed in her first Olympics at just 15 and won a gold medal in the 800-meter freestyle competition. Her win was made even more impressive by the fact that, per her Team USA bio, she was the youngest person on the team. Since then, she's become an Olympics mainstay, competing in Rio and Tokyo in 2016 and 2021 after the 2020 Olympics were delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ledecky is famous not only for racking up half a dozen Olympic medals but also because she rarely ever loses. And when she wins, she wins big: A 2016 profile on Ledecky in The Washington Post noted that she wins by almost incomprehensibly large margins, not just inching past her competition but leaving them in the dust. "She's the greatest athlete in the world today by far," anesthesiologist and researcher Michael J. Joyner told the outlet, adding that Ledecky is "dominating by the widest margin in international sport, winning by 1 or 2%."

To top it off, the athlete is immensely likable, with fans admiring her humility and work ethic. Whether you've followed Ledecky's career for years or have just heard of her, learning the truth about this impressive athlete might just turn you into a lifelong fan.

Katie Ledecky's track record is impressive — so much so that some people over the years have been skeptical that she could have accomplished all of her impressive feats on her own. Her record-breaking times have drawn accusations of steroid use, even though there's no proof of her doping. In 2016, ESPN reported that Ledecky had gone through dozens of doping controls, not only in the U.S. but also at international competitions, never failing a single one. 

Ledecky has held her head up in the midst of all the suspicion, but that doesn't mean it hasn't bothered her. Not only is she adamant that she doesn't use any banned substances, but she's also not thrilled with how people who are caught doping are treated. "It's annoying and frustrating when you see athletes that do dope and sometimes they're not punished harshly enough," she said. "It has never crossed my mind to dope. It's not who I am."

A lot of parents put their kids in swimming lessons just in case they ever find themselves in the deep end of a pool, caught in a riptide, or — more improbably — shipwrecked. Swimming can save your life, something that Katie Ledecky's mother knows all too well. Ledecky was enrolled in swimming lessons because her mother, Mary Gen, had been put into lessons, herself, as a child after her older sister nearly drowned, as noted by ESPN.

Learning the life-saving skill turned into a family tradition, with all of Mary Gen's siblings learning how to swim. The outlet noted that Mary Gen excelled at the sport and went on to join the swim team at the University of New Mexico. Per the Albuquerque Journal, Mary Gen was a nationally-ranked swimmer whose freestyle skills qualified her for nationals three times. Once she had kids of her own, she decided to put both of them into swimming lessons as well. Both Ledecky and her brother, Michael, proved to be talented at the sport. While Michael didn't go on to be an Olympian, he did swim throughout high school. Clearly, swimming genes run strong in the Ledecky family!

Katie Ledecky works hard to accomplish her goals, but she's not what you would call a perfectionist, per se. In fact, she takes a very healthy approach to training and competition, acknowledging that failure is not only a part of life but also something to learn from. As she explained to Forbes, she trains hard but recognizes that "even the bad days have something good that comes out of them."

It's a philosophy passed on to her from her coaches, who told her that she "fail[s] spectacularly in practice." This doesn't bother Ledecky; rather, it motivates her. "That's something that I actually work toward," she said.

Ledecky is always working to improve, something her coach, Bruce Gemmell, told Swim Swam is the key to her success. He explained that Ledecky's "strength is not in any physical attribute" or "any particular technique." Instead, it's her ability to keep pushing herself and overcome her failures until she succeeds. "It's her overwhelming desire to do what she needs to do to get better," he told the publication.

Many people were skeptical when Katie Ledecky announced her decision to go to college. As ESPN pointed out, she was potentially giving up millions of dollars by going to school instead of turning pro, but that didn't bother her (likely because she had already racked up an impressive net worth). So, Ledecky started classes at Stanford University in 2016 after competing in her second Olympics. "I'm not concerned about money at this point," she told the outlet when she was 19. "I enjoy representing my team, my country, my family, myself. I don't think at my age I need to represent something more than that."

Attending college and putting off going pro so she could remain eligible to swim on a college team had always been Ledecky's plan. "That's definitely something I want to do," she told Bethesda Magazine in 2012. Per ESPN, she did swim for Stanford for a couple of years, although she turned pro after the 2017-2018 season. Ledecky finished up her degree virtually, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. The political science and psychology major graduated from Stanford in 2020, as noted by Insider.

Katie Ledecky has a strong support system and is goal-oriented, both of which have helped her accomplish extraordinary feats at a young age. But those aren't the only things keeping her rooted. From an early age, Ledecky was grounded in her Catholic faith, and this faith was only reinforced by attending Catholic schools through high school. As she told the Catholic Standard (via Religion News Service), Catholicism "is part of who I am and I feel comfortable practicing my faith."

Ledecky noted that her faith has been a strong presence in her competitive career. In fact, prayer is another thing that helps her keep stress at bay. "More than anything, praying just helps me to concentrate and let go of things that don't matter in that moment," she told the Northern Catholic Register (via The Irish Times). "It gives me peace knowing I'm in good hands."

Professional athletes often retire young, as their strenuous lifestyle takes a toll — in fact, swimming every day has various effects on the body. SwimmerPro notes that the average swimmer peaks in their early 20s, although there have been instances of Olympians competing in their 30s and 40s. Will Katie Ledecky be one of them?

While it seems like she's been in the public eye forever, don't forget that she was only 15 when she made her Olympic debut in 2012, noted Swimmer Pro, and, so, she's still quite young. Given Ledecky's substantial talent and determination, it seems likely that she will defy the odds and compete for years to come.

Ledecky, herself, certainly has no plans of retiring. "I'm going to continue to swim beyond 2020, hopefully to at least 2024 and maybe beyond to 2028," she told NBC of her Olympic goals. While Ledecky will be 31 in 2028, there's no reason she won't be able to compete then if she so wishes. As the Olympics website notes, Michael Phelps — another swimming prodigy whose name is often mentioned alongside Ledecky's — also competed in his first Olympics at the age of 15 and continued until age 31. Then there's Dara Torres who, at 41, made history as the oldest swimmer to ever compete in the Olympics (via Today). For now, though, like Ledecky said, we'll just have to wait and see what the future holds for the talented swimmer.