Kathleen Genevieve Ledecky was born and raised in Washington, DC area. Inspired by her mother and older brother, both swimmers, Ledecky began to swim when she was 6 years old. While at school, she started her competitive career with the Palisades Swim Team, setting the national high-school record in the 200-yard freestyle and the 500-yard freestyle of the US Open.
At the 2012 London Olympics, 15 years old Ledecky made her international debut. There, she won her first gold Olympic medal, winning the 800-meter freestyle course while breaking the American record with a time of 8:14.63. In the following year, she won four gold medals at the 2013 World Championships, 3 individuals at the 400-meter, 800-meter, and 1500-meter freestyle, and 1 with her teammates at the 4×200-meter freestyle relay. She also set her first two world records and was awarded the FINA Trophy for receiving the highest-scoring overall female swimmer at the championships.
In 2014, Ledecky broke her own world records in 800- and 1500-meter freestyle at the US national championships. At the Pan Pacific Championships, she won five gold medals at the 200-, 400-, 800-, and 1,500-metre freestyle, and the 4×200-meter relay, while setting new world records: 3:58.37 at the 400-meter and 15:28.36 at the 1500-meter. She continued to collect personal and global achievements at the 2015 World Championships, winning first place in five events (200-, 400-, 800-, and 1,500-metre freestyle and the 4x 200-meter relay), becoming the only person in history to win four individual freestyle swimming distances in the same world championship. Ledecky also set three world records – the 800-meter and twice in the 1500-meter. In that same year, at the age of 18, Ledecky graduated high school and joined the women’s swimming team at Stanford University, where she studied psychology.
At the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, Ledecky added to her trophy cabinet 5 more medals – 3 individual gold medals for the 200-, 400-, and 800-meter freestyle, 1 gold at the 4×200-meter relay, and 1 silver for the 4x 100-meter freestyle relay. As usual, she broke two world records, the 400-meter with a time of 3.56.46 and the 800-meter with 8.4.79.
In 2017, at the age of 20, she competed for the first time at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), where she set 12 NCAA records and 9 US records. She continued to win the 200-, 400-, and 800-meter freestyle at the 2017 US National Championships, and 5 gold medals and 1 silver at the 2017 World Championships, breaking the competition’s records of the most awarded female. In the following years, she reached first place at the 400-, 800-, and 1500-meter freestyle of the 2018 Pan Pacific Championships and won her fourth World Championship title in the 800-meter freestyle at the 2019 World Championships.
By 2021, 24 years old Ledecky won 24 gold medals in international competitions, set 14 world records and 37 American Records. She was named female World Swimmer of the Year five times and three times USOPC Female Athlete of the Year.
Between one gold medal to another, Ledecky is working with various non-profit organizations, such as the Bikes for the World, Shepherd’s Table, and the Wounded Warriors Project of the Walter Reed Bethesda Naval Medical Center.
This post is also available in:
Español
This post is also available in:
Español
