Swimmer Katie Ledecky is now the most-decorated American athlete in the history of the Summer Olympics. The 27-year-old DC native absolutely dominated during her run in the 2024 Paris Olympics. That included coming away with two golds, a silver and a bronze.
Ledecky now owns an American record 14 medals. That includes nine golds during her career in the Summer Olympics.
She certainly still has a long career ahead of herself and will likely compete in the 2028 Games when they take to Los Angeles.
But what about her future after this career ultimately comes to an end? Ledecky opened up to CNN about her post-career plans. What she had to say can’t be considered too much of a surprise.
“I just love the pool, love the water, love telling people how great our sport is. Getting people in the pool to learn how to swim, that’s really important to me,” Katie Ledecky said.
Whether her role in swimming moving forward would be as a coach, Ledecky seemed less certain.
“I’ll always be attached to swimming in some respect,” she said. “I have a lot of respect for my coaches and the time and the hours and the hard work that they put in. So I don’t know if I can do what they do, they’re great.”
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Katie Ledecky Shows Sportsmanship In Midst Of Historic Run
Ledecky is the face of swimming right now. Much like fellow American Simone Biles, she’s dominated the landscape in Paris this summer.
She’s also doing a ton of good in adding to the growing popularity of the sport.
Ledecky invited teammate Paige Madden up to the podium after winning gold in the 800m freestyle event this past weekend. It was a tremendous show of solidarity.
She also talked about having her family in Paris after they were not able to attend the 2020 Summer Olympics (delayed until 2021) due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s great to have family and friends back at the Olympics after not being there in Tokyo,” she said. “It’s just been a great environment, a great atmosphere. “It’s very special to share the moments after competition with all them, get to celebrate and soak in a little bit of Paris.”
Ledecky will return to the United States after the Closing Ceremony next week as an absolute legend. But she’s far from seeing this run come to a conclusion. That’s for sure.
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