What made world-beating 'machine' Katie Ledecky finally crack and show emotion

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RIO DE JANEIRO — Back home in the United States, Kaitlin Pawlowicz could watch the jaw-dropping domination unfold Friday night and feel some six-year-old satisfaction.

She is the answer to a trivia question: the last woman to beat Katie Ledecky in the 800-meter freestyle.

It happened in July 2010, at the Potomac Valley Swimming Senior Championships. Pawlowicz, age 17, beat 13-year-old Ledecky by 12 seconds – almost the same margin by which Ledecky destroyed the world Friday night in the Olympic Games.

I talked to Pawlowicz about it a couple weeks ago, and here’s the funny thing: She doesn’t even remember the race. Beating 13-year-old Katie Ledecky just wasn’t a landmark achievement back then. But she does remember another race from that same meet, when Pawlowicz came from behind to beat Ledecky in the 1,500.

“She was leading and her cap came off,” said Pawlowicz, who went on to swim at Texas and graduated from the school in 2015. That’s the kind of swimwear wardrobe malfunction that happens to little kids.

Since then, Ledecky has compiled a six-year winning streak against anyone and everyone the world has to offer. She’s also undefeated at the 400 freestyle in long-course international competition.

Yeah, Pawlowicz has kept track of that scrappy 13-year-old’s career a bit since then.

“She is amazing,” she said, speaking for the entirety of the human race.

Katie Ledecky has never been more amazing than in her final swim of this freestyle tour de force in Rio. It was an utter lock that she would win her fourth and final gold medal of these Games, fifth medal overall, in the 800. But the way she did it, hammering her own world record to smithereens and leaving her competition flailing far in arrears, was Secretariat at the Belmont stuff.

[Related: Anthony Ervin, 35, wins 50-meter freestyle gold in stunning fashion]

That provoked the usual inhuman descriptors of Ledecky: animal, monster, beast – and the one that was used in the race call of that 1973 Belmont.

Machine.

But here was the most captivating, touching, surprising thing about the night: The machine broke down. Katie Ledecky, of all unemotional people, cried like a baby. Over and over.

She cried in the mixed zone in front of the assembled media. She cried in the warmdown area, shocking none other than Michael Phelps.

“This is the first time I’ve ever seen her in tears after a race,” the greatest of all swimmers said. “It’s the first time I’ve ever seen true emotion come out. That was pretty cool to see.”

Ledecky really let it go behind the scenes when she met up with her coach of the past four years, Bruce Gemmell. The two have a beautiful swimming relationship, a synchronicity derived from the shared appetite for the daily grind that produces quadrennial glory.

Bruce is funny in a slightly off-kilter way. Same with Katie. They get each other. They’ve made each other better.

And this was Katie’s last swim with Bruce as her coach. She’s off to Stanford in the fall, off to the next chapter. The culmination of a four-year dream, combined with the sadness of goodbye, overwhelmed a couple of stoics when they hugged.

“He was crying, too,” Ledecky said, voice quivering. “He doesn’t cry very often, I don’t cry very often. But it’s been a pleasure to share this journey with him.”

Then Ledecky broke down and cried some more, right there in the post-race press conference. Runner-up Jazz Carlin of Great Britain actually reached over to give her a consoling pat on the arm.

Ledecky was, on this momentous night near the end of an unforgettable swimming competition, one of the girls. Tears have flowed in torrents from the American women, in joy and support for each other and also because a remarkable month together is coming to a close. The bonding within this group was remarkable.

“I’ve had so much fun the last couple weeks,” Ledecky said. “We’re all feeding off each other’s energy.”

Indeed, while waiting for her race in the staging area, Ledecky said she was “yelling and screaming” watching teammate and friend Maya DiRado upset Katinka Hosszu in the 200 backstroke. Then the rest of the American team did its yelling and screaming for Ledecky.

All of this was a wonderful reminder of one thing: The machine isn’t a machine at all. She is a 19-year-old young woman made of muscle and bone, with an exceptional head on her broad shoulders and an immeasurably strong heart at her core. She’s human, but just happens to swim at a standard other humans cannot come close to touching.

“What she’s doing in this sport is ridiculous,” Phelps said. “It’s insane.”

The five-race ouvre Ledecky composed here was arguably the most overpowering Olympic performance ever by a female swimmer.

East German Kristin Otto won six golds in 1988, but was the product of a country engaged in systemic doping of its female athletes. Same with Kornelia Ender of East Germany, who won four golds in 1976. Missy Franklin won four golds in 2012, but half of those were on relays. Amy Van Dyken won four in 1996, but three were relay gold – and she was a regular BALCO client, for what that’s worth.

Ledecky won three individual races, twice setting world records. Previous record holder in the 400 and 800: herself. She also showed her versatility by dipping down in distance to win the 200 freestyle, outlasting Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom in a withering duel. She anchored the winning 800 free relay, entering the water behind and leaving it two seconds ahead, after swimming the second-fastest 200 free relay split in history.

[Related: An American has medaled a record six straight Olympics, and here’s why few know her]

Thus, what has been a glorious farewell to Phelps – with his four golds and one silver and being the flag bearer and a team captain – has fortuitously dovetailed with a thunderous arrival for Ledecky as the standard-bearer for the sport.

“We have arguably the two greatest swimmers of all time,” said USA Swimming executive director Frank Busch. “We should feel so lucky.”

Thursday afternoon, the family of the female GOAT was eating lunch in the Courtyard Marriott by the Main Press Center here in Rio de Janeiro. As with most conversations with David and Mary Gen Ledecky and their son, Michael, there isn’t a lot of verbiage expended discussing the swimming exploits by the baby of the family. This is a wildly accomplished family that never seems that impressed by its accomplishments.

After a while, Team USA’s women’s head coach, David Marsh, came in and engaged the Ledecky family in conversation. Marsh was looking for a funny story, something to tease Katie about. He didn’t get much.

“She’s just kind of regular,” he was told.

She showed regular human emotion Friday night, at the culmination of a one-week performance that was anything but regular. It was staggering, with the potential for so much more to come.

Katie Ledecky’s days of dominating her sport should stretch into years. Kaitlin Pawlowicz figures to be the answer to a trivia question for a long time to come.