How Katie Ledecky Excels in Every Swimming Category: Trains For Speed, Practices For Distance

Since the London Olympics 2012, Katie Ledecky has been one of the stars of the swimming world. Unlike the typical athlete who focuses on one or two events, her dominance has stretched across multiple categories within the sport, making her one-of-a-kind. Recently, she talked about this in an interview with Women’s Wear Daily, where she revealed the secret of her versatility.

Although she has often reiterated her preference for long-distance swimming, her speed and endurance have always come together for various events. She explained that the key was that although she was more of a distance swimmer, she trained for speed as well. She still wants to participate in relays, so her training style allowed her more flexibility.

“Well, I just have always trained for all the freestyle events and, at some point, I realized I was more of a distance swimmer, but I still trained some speed…“

Ledecky’s endurance and speed helped her bag 14 individual and team Olympic medals over the years. Being one of the most decorated female swimmers of all time, her track record has been similar to that of Michael Phelps, who also exceled in multiple categories.

However, Ledecky’s preference for long-distance swimming, particularly the 800m and 1500m — the two categories in which she won gold in Paris – came about because of her preference for the monotony of endurance swimming.

Ledecky’s peculiar love for repetitive swimming

During her Olympic debut in 2012, Ledecky immediately overtook Kate Ziegler, the reigning champion of the 800m Individual Medley, and won the gold. That marked the beginning of the Maryland native’s superiority over long-distance swimming events.

In an old interview with ‘My Swim Pro,’ Ledecky’s former coach, Bruce Gemmell, discussed her preferences and where they came from. For the longest time, the 27-year-old has enjoyed challenging herself to grueling hours of repetitive swimming.

This trait passed on to competitions, where she found that long-distance swimming was essentially going back and forth in the pool as fast as possible. The monotony of the event appealed to Ledecky, who took the opportunity to improve her endurance for such categories.