Katie Ledecky just added another gold medal to her collection. The 27-year-old Olympian swam the 1500-meter freestyle in 15:30:02 on Wednesday, July 31 — winning by a landslide against all other countries. The victory broke a personal record of hers, as Katie previously swam a 15:35.35 at the Tokyo Olympic Games three years prior. In addition to the eight gold medals she has, Katie also has three silver and one bronze medal.
After realizing she had won the freestyle, Katie was seen celebrating the feat right after touching the wall. She later spoke with reporters about the win.
“It’s never easy to win a gold medal,” the athlete said. “So, I’m just trying to soak in every moment of it.”
Although her “mind wandered a lot” throughout the long-distance race, Katie was able to stay focused.
.@SnoopDogg is ALL OF US watching Katie Ledecky win by 10.33 seconds. 😳 #ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/RdUohmEdRu
— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) August 1, 2024
“You know, three years ago in Tokyo, I was repeating my grandmothers’ names in my head a lot,” she recalled. “And today, I kind of settled on the boys’ names, the boys at Florida that I train with every day. I was just kind of repeating their names in my head, just thinking of all the practices that we’ve done and all the confidence that I get from training, from being next to them and racing them.”
Other swimmers were surprised to hear that Katie was able to let her mind drift away from the race. Michael Phelps was even shocked but acknowledged how skilled Katie is to be able to do that.
“Well, one, I’ve never swam a race long enough to where my mind can wander,” Michael, 39, said, per TODAY. “But to be able to do that, and to still be kind of in the moment, almost celebrating that gold medal with them, it’s so powerful. She’s got a great training group down at the University of Florida.”
Before the Paris Olympics commenced, Katie spoke to TODAY in June about her journey. The swimmer admitted that she “never thought that [she] would even make one Olympics when [she] first started swimming, let alone have the opportunity to go into a fourth.”
“So, that part is mind-blowing to me,” Katie added. “But at the same time, I don’t really focus on the history stuff or medal counts. I’m very focused on each individual swim, and moreso times than places.”