Katie Ledecky is Swimming’s New MVP
Fourteen world records and five Olympic gold medals all before the age of 20 years old.
Katie Ledecky has done more before the age of 16 than most people will do in their whole life. She was the youngest member of the 2012 London Olympic Games, at 15 years old. This is where we got our first glimpse of what would be one of the top swimmers in the world. At her first international meet, she won gold in the 800-meter race, which was a shock to everyone there.
At the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, Ledecky won the 400-meter freestyle race with a time of 3:56.46, breaking the previous world record by almost five seconds. In the 200 meters freestyle race, she took the lead around the 60-meter mark and never lost it. In the 800-meter freestyle race, she swam an 8:04.79 and broke the world record by two seconds and beat the silver medalist by 11 seconds.
The last eight top performances in the women’s 1500-meter race have been by Katie Ledecky. Each time she swims this event, she tops her own world record. In 2013, she broke the record with a 15.36.53; now in 2018, she has a 15.20.48. Within the past five years, she has dropped almost 20 seconds in the same event.
After her run at the Olympic Games, Ledecky was a part of the Stanford Swim Team, where they won back to back NCAA Championships. In the time following, she has gone pro and signed with TYR, a popular racing swimsuit company. ESPN has her at number 5 on the Dominant Athletes list for 2018.
It is hard to find a rivalry in the world of swimming since most people see it as an individual sport. Each swimmer is always their own biggest competition. Therefore, Ledecky has always been more focused on her times rather than who she is swimming against.
When it comes to the competition, there is no one that comes close to Ledecky.
