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Katie Ledecky set to chase Olympic history

BETHESDA, Md. – The workout was a grinder – a succession of freestyle efforts with scant rest in between, taxing the lungs, muscles and mind. And the competition only made it tougher.

Over the course of the two-hour practice, Nation’s Capital Swim Club’s elite group would churn out 7,525 yards – about 4 ¼ miles. In the 56-minute crucible that comprised the main set, they cranked through 4,000 of those yards. The swims descended in distance (200 yards, then 150, then 100) but increased in pace – and stress.

Katie Ledecky smiles after she set a world record in the women's 1500m freestyle in August 2014. (AP)
Katie Ledecky smiles after she set a world record in the women's 1500m freestyle in August 2014. (AP)

Andrew Gemmell, a 2012 Olympian and the son of NCAP head coach Bruce Gemmell, led the way in Lane Six. Toiling (and sometimes failing) to keep pace in Lane Seven was Matthew Hirschberger, who two months earlier broke the national 15-16 age-group record in the 1,000 freestyle. And then there was the swimmer in Lane Five – on Andrew Gemmell’s hip every stroke of the afternoon, like an aquatic stalker.

That swimmer’s pattern between sprints never varied: touch the wall, gasp for a couple seconds, modulate the breathing to inhale through the nose, tug down determinedly on the front of the cap, stoically look at the pace clock and go again.

This was America’s premier female athlete at work. Katie Ledecky could go all day, all month, all year – all the way to Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and beyond, as she stretches the boundaries of freestyle swimming.

“I mean really, if you walk in off the street, she’s not faster than everybody else – she’s just average,” Bruce Gemmell said, smiling. “Then you realize she’s a girl. And then you realize the boy next to her is a 2012 Olympian. And then you realize the boy on the other side is maybe the best high schooler in the country.”

Watching the 18-year-old Ledecky go stroke-for-stroke with elite male competition is like sending the best of the WNBA into a gym to play one-on-one with NBA stars. And expecting them to keep it close.

Ledecky keeps it close. And if the top males don’t bring it on a given day, she’ll beat them.

“It’s a great atmosphere every day,” she said. “There’s always somebody going, and I try to keep up with them as much as I can.”

As a point of comparison, the two other girls in the NCAP elite training group during this mid-May workout were also among the best high-schoolers in America – Isabella Rongione and Morgan Hill. They’re both 2016 Olympic Trials qualifiers. And they were both left so far in Ledecky’s wake that they barely seemed to belong.

After shocking the world by winning Olympic gold in the 800-meter freestyle in London three years ago as an unheralded 15-year-old, Katie Ledecky has hit full bloom. In her best events – the 400, 800 and 1,500 freestyles – Ledecky has outclassed her gender.

Katie Ledecky adjusts her cap before competing in a final at the Arena Pro Swim Series on April 17. (AFP)
Katie Ledecky adjusts her cap before competing in a final at the Arena Pro Swim Series on April 17. (AFP)

Her best times in 2014 and ’15 are five seconds ahead of her closest international competition in the 400, 4.5 ahead in the 800 and 27 ahead in the 1,500 – gaping chasms in a sport that measures to the fractions of seconds. She is the fastest female swimmer in history at those distances, and is the only woman currently holding three individual world records. (The only man: Michael Phelps.) Her times in the 400 free (3 minutes, 58.37 seconds) and 1,500 (15:28.36) would actually qualify her for the 2016 men’s Olympic Trials – something no other current American female swimmer can say, in any event.

Factor in Ledecky’s current standing as the top American in the 200 freestyle and there could be historic medal hauls in international competition over the next 15 months.

In August at the World Championships in Kazan, Russia, she will swim five freestyle events – everything from the 200 through the 1,500, plus the 800 freestyle relay. If she can handle that Phelpsian workload – racing up to 6,200 total meters in the course of the meet, counting preliminaries and semifinals – gold will be possible in each. And Kazan will serve as the launching pad into the Olympic year.

Although there is (nonsensically) no 1,500 for women in the Olympics, she could wind up swimming five events in Rio in ’16 if she swims the 200, 400, 800, 800 free relay and earns a spot on the American 400 freestyle relay. No American female has ever won five gold medals in one Olympics.

Missy Franklin, Ledecky’s more celebrated 2012 teammate, won four golds plus a bronze in London. As Phelps performs in the twilight of his unparalleled career, the two women could combine to be the American face of the ’16 Olympic team. But if you wanted to bet on which one has the best chance to strive for five golds in Rio, Ledecky’s distance dominance might make her the favorite.

The amazing thing is that she has developed the strength and versatility to be a factor in the shorter freestyle events. She isn’t just sprinting for fun; she’s sprinting to win.

“Katie is a tremendous competitor and relishes the opportunity to swim a number of events,” said Frank Busch, USA Swimming’s National Team Director. “She has a full schedule ahead of her in Kazan, and I know she’s looking forward to the challenge. Not too many athletes have had the ability to swim the range of events she does at such a high level. It’s really pretty amazing.”

The person who sounds least amazed by Katie Ledecky is Katie Ledecky. She is remarkably matter-of-fact about her swimming, speaking in understated terms about a time-consuming sport that has not consumed her entire identity. What makes her famous isn’t the only thing that makes her interesting.

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For a good part of the summer, the ottoman in the Ledecky family sunroom will have a Scrabble board on it. That’s where Katie and her older brother, Michael, do battle.

“Those competitions can be pretty fierce,” Michael said.

It makes sense that the board game of choice in the Ledecky family would be a brain game.

Michael is home for the summer from Harvard, where he’s a sports writer for the student paper. The Ledeckys’ father, David, is a Harvard graduate. So is their uncle, Jon, who in 2014 became part-owner of the New York Islanders – hockey runs a strong second to swimming on the family’s list of favorite sports.

Katie Ledecky poses on the Olympic podium in 2012 after winning gold in the women's 800m freestyle. (AFP)
Katie Ledecky poses on the Olympic podium in 2012 after winning gold in the women's 800m freestyle. (AFP)

Katie herself was set to go to Stanford in the fall before recently deferring her enrollment. She didn’t want to disrupt her NCAP training routine with Gemmell heading into an Olympic year – a decision her future Stanford coach, Greg Meehan, endorsed. She still plans to be a Stanford student and swimmer after Rio, for now rejecting any temptation to turn professional.

“Academics come first in our family,” Michael Ledecky said. “That’s always been the attitude and expectation.”

The Stanford deferral is the only academic capitulation the family has made to the demanding reality of Olympic-level swimming. Katie was never going to take an online class, be home-schooled or look for bunny courses in an effort to work around her training schedule. Her course load at the all-girls Catholic school, Stone Ridge of the Sacred Heart (Bethesda, Maryland), has been heavy on Advanced Placement and honors classes.

“We want her to have something other than swimming in her life,” her mother, Mary Ledecky, said.

In a life rife with athletic and academic striving, some things have been squeezed out. Katie still doesn’t have her driver’s license – there hasn’t been enough time to complete all the classroom hours in driver's education that Maryland requires. But she does her best to make time for fun.

Immediately following her mid-May interview with Yahoo Sports at the pool where she trains, Katie went back to Stone Ridge to decorate the school with her fellow seniors. And she showed some fledgling comedy skills – and impressive speechwriting – in this fundraising video for the school and subsequent speech.

“She has a little bit of a goofy side she may not show on the pool deck,” Michael Ledecky said.

On the pool deck, you get a competitor who stunned everyone in 2012.

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In September 2011, 14-year-old Katie Ledecky had progressed far enough to have The Talk with her coach at the time, Yuri Suguiyama. It was time to set goals for the year to come, which would include the London Olympics.

Suguiyama asked what her ultimate goal was.

“Come on, you know,” she said shyly.

“Say it,” he demanded.

“Make the Olympic team,” she replied softly.

“Say it again,” he said.

“Make the Olympic team.”

By the June Trials in Omaha, Ledecky had put herself in position to realize the goal that was almost too scary to say out loud the previous year. She was seeded third in the 800 freestyle – but only the top two made the Olympic team, and Ledecky had very little big-meet experience.

She handled the pressure impressively, winning the event by two seconds and punching her ticket to London. Still, nobody was convinced that performance would translate to a medal-winning effort on the biggest of all stages.

Katie Ledecky reacts after winning Olympic gold in the 800m freestyle. (AP)
Katie Ledecky reacts after winning Olympic gold in the 800m freestyle. (AP)

Ledecky swam well in preliminaries, qualifying third for the final. But winning was a complete afterthought there, swimming next to top seed and British heroine Rebecca Adlington – the 2008 gold medalist and reigning world-record holder. Prince William and Princess Kate joined the Union Jack-waving throngs to participate in a coronation of the British distance queen on home soil.

Instead, they saw an unknown 15-year-old steal the throne. Ledecky attacked from the start, going out at a pace that was faster than anything she’d ever done before and risking a collapse in the latter stages. The collapse never came – she took control of the race after 150 meters and just kept going, widening her winning margin to an astonishing four-plus seconds and nearly taking down the world record.

“We’re seeing somebody who is going to become very famous, very suddenly,” remarked a member of the shell-shocked British announcing crew.

Ledecky’s face after the race betrayed some shock and awe of her own. Yet it was exactly what she had visualized in the weeks between Omaha and London.

“If you told me at that [2011] goal meeting I would win gold, I wouldn’t believe that,” she said. “But after I made the team, I don’t think I envisioned myself getting anything but gold.”

That, said Gemmell, is where Ledecky’s greatness can be found.

“She is willing to fail, but failure is not an option,” he said. “With her London swim – she stuck her neck out, but failing was not an option. That combination of things sets her apart.”

After that potentially life-warping event, winning an Olympic gold at the age of 15, it took almost no time at all for Ledecky to settle back into her matter-of-fact life. The biggest change in her daily existence that fall had nothing to do with the London Games – it was big brother Michael leaving home to start his freshman year at Harvard.

Since then, Ledecky’s swimming has launched into a new realm. She is not a one-hit wonder – in fact, she can play just about all the freestyle hits. The question now is how many can go gold – in Kazan and in Rio.

But getting Katie Ledecky to daydream out loud about that isn’t going to happen. She is a pragmatic, process-oriented woman, moving forward one lung-searing practice at a time.

“I don’t like to think too far into the future,” she said. “I just try to improve every day and see where that takes me.”

It may take her where no American woman has gone before.