People and Pop Culture
Katie’s rise
This week Katie Ledecky will swim in her first major event since turning pro, the Phillips 66 Nationals in Irvine, Calif. Want to be the new face of swimming? Few have trained as hard, even if it meant as a child taking a dip on a family vacation in Prague.
Katie Ledecky was 10 when her grandmother found a pool for her to use during the family’s visit to Prague.courtesy of wasserman
You’re looking at the first time Katie Ledecky ever touched a swimming pool outside the United States. Then 10 years old, she was on vacation in Prague with her parents, uncle, brother and grandparents in 2007.
The next time she touched foreign water, it was at the London Olympics five years later. You know that story: Racing as the youngest member of Team USA, she won her first gold medal and set an American record in the 800-meter freestyle. And, of course, in the years since, the newly turned pro has added four more Olympic golds from Rio and 14 world championships.
When Katie posed on the deck of the Podoli Swimming Centre that August, her rapid evolution from talented youngster to all-time Olympic great was already underway, even if she didn’t realize it yet.
“We were just kind of getting serious about our swimming,” she said, including her older brother Michael, who had competed alongside her at a meet in Buffalo before the Ledeckys drove to JFK Airport for the Prague flight.
At the time, Ledecky knew she was good — she’d been at the top of her age group since the summer season when she was 8, and the Prague trip was around the time she started setting age group records for her club. But she was still involved in basketball, soccer, Irish dance and the usual pursuits of a sporty pre-teen.
That summer, she said, was when swimming started to emerge as her clear priority.
“Not many people want to go lap swimming on summer vacation,” she said. “Having an older brother into it helped. I think we kind of fed off each other and would enjoy trying to keep our feel of the water even when we’re on vacation.”
It wasn’t that useful a practice, she recalls. Adults swimming at the same time, as well as her youth and the language barrier, intimidated her. “It was more for fun,” she says. “We really appreciated what our grandmother had done — found a place for us to practice.”
There’s a bit of foreshadowing in the picture: Ledecky’s wearing a TYR suit. At the time, TYR was an also-ran behind Speedo in competitive swimming, but it emerged as a player in the ensuing 11 years and, in June, signed Ledecky to a blockbuster seven-year deal worth more than $1 million annually.
