By: Ansel Dong
Katie Ledecky is one of the fastest freestyle swimmers. The 26-year-old American won the 800 free at the world championships on Saturday to be the first swimmer to win six gold medals in the same event at worlds. It was also her 16th individual world title, breaking a tie with Michael Phelps for the most gold medals at worlds. Why is she one of the fastest swimmers? She is never satisfied with herself. She is a 3x Olympian, 7x Olympic champion, and 15x world champion. She had been swimming since the age of 6.
The world championships were held in Fukuoka, Japan. Katie Ledecky is a seven-time gold medalist in the Olympics and world records holder in the 800- and 1500-meter freestyle. The winning time: 8 minutes, 8.86 seconds – is the seventh quickest she had ever swum. “I’m just always trying to think of new ways to improve. I mean I’ve already got everything turning in my head right now. I kind of wanted to be better than I was tonight,” she said, twirling her right hand by her right ear, trying to get ideas. “I’m pretty tough on myself,” she said. “But I think I have found the balance of being tough on myself but also having that grace.” Her coach, Bruce Gemmel, said, “There can be new challenges. There can be new doors. There can be new opportunities. I guess I just don’t want to get hung on the faster is necessarily better, and if it’s not faster it’s not better.”
The 800 free was Ledecky’s second individual gold medal with her win in the 1500 free on Tuesday. She won silver in the 400 free. “It’s fun to leave a meet with your favorite event, and I just wanted to leave it all in the pool,” she said. Only 4 gold medals for the United States during the seventh of the eight days. Australia has more than 13 gold medals, doing its best at worlds. Australia has already won more than three golds on Saturday. It was all made up for her DQ (disqualification) in the 200 IM. (Individual medley. Where the swimmer must swim all four strokes: Butterfly, Backstroke, Breaststroke, and Freestyle, respectively. It is a 200-meter race. This means each stroke will be swimming 50 meters.) “You can’t change the rules,” she said. “I got ruled out. It’s just the cards I was dealt with, and I couldn’t do much more than that. So, I just had to carry myself the best I could and channel all my anger and turn a huge negative into a positive.” Regan Smith of the United States won silver with the time 2:04.94, while Peng Xuwei of China won bronze with the time 2:06.74.
Although Ledecky faced hard challenges throughout her heats, she still accomplished what she wanted and kept going.