Katie Ledecky Reveals Plan to Compete in 4 Swimming Events at 2024 Olympics
Scott Polacek@@ScottPolacekFeatured Columnist IVJune 18, 2024
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Katie Ledecky has already established herself as one of the greatest swimmers in Olympics history, but she has her eye on four more gold medals at the 2024 Paris Games.
She told reporters Tuesday she plans on competing in the 400m, 800m and 1500m freestyle individual events along with the 4x200m relay. That means she will likely drop the 200m individual freestyle competition to focus on the other four events.
Ledecky qualified for the 200m individual freestyle at the U.S. Olympic swimming trials, but her decision to focus on the other events would open up a spot for someone else. Pat Forde of Sports Illustrated noted that “presumably” means third-place finisher Paige Madden will participate in the 200m individual at the Games.
Regardless of how many events she competes in, Ledecky will be one of the Olympic headliners from an American perspective.
She already has seven Olympic gold medals and three silver medals on an illustrious resume that also includes 21 world championship titles. The Paris Games will be the fourth of her career after London 2012, Rio de Janeiro 2016 and Tokyo 2020.
The legendary swimmer broke onto the international stage with an 800m freestyle gold as a 15-year-old at the London Olympics and then was an unstoppable force in Rio de Janeiro with golds in the 800m freestyle, 400m freestyle, 200m freestyle and 4x200m freestyle relay in addition to a silver in the 4x100m freestyle.
The bar was set so high that two golds, two silvers and a fifth-place finish (200m freestyle) in the Tokyo Games was almost a disappointment by her impossibly high standards.
Anything but another handful of medals in Paris would be a shock at this point, and competing in four events instead of the five she competed in during the last two Olympics could allow her to preserve more energy and be even better with medals on the line.
That is a daunting thought to the rest of the field.
