The Katie Ledecky Page -- August 13, 2016

From Fox News:

From the lede at The New York Times:

In 1968, a teenager in [Williston] North Dakota watched transfixed as Debbie Meyer won the 200-, 400- and 800-meter freestyle races at the Mexico City Olympics. The next time the teenager, already a competitive swimmer, got in the pool, she cut through the water repeating to herself, “I am Debbie Meyer.”

That teenager would grow up to become the mother of Katie Ledecky, who on Friday night became the first Olympian since Meyer to complete the 200, 400 and 800 trifecta. Ledecky lowered her seven-month-old world record in the 800 freestyle by two seconds with a time of 8 minutes 4.79 seconds. Her 400 split of 4:01.98 would have won the bronze in the 400 final last Sunday.

She finished 11.38 seconds ahead of the runner-up, Jazz Carlin of Britain, who clocked an 8:16.17. That was two-tenths of a second better than the bronze medalist, Boglarka Kapas of Hungary. The slim margin separating second and third threw into sharp relief the dominance of Ledecky, who owns the 13 fastest performances in history.

Four years ago, a 15-year-old Ledecky won the 800 freestyle in 8:14.63. She and Hungary’s Krisztina Egerszegi are the only swimmers to win gold medals in consecutive Olympics as teenagers. Ledecky started crying as she talked about completing this Olympics cycle by hitting all her goal times.

Wow, I wish Dr Hagan were alive to see this.

Past posts on Katie (most, but not all):

• August 9, 2016: the Williston-Ledecky connection 
• August 9, 2016: she has never lost a race on the big stage
• August 7, 2016: smashes her own world record in the 400-meter freestyle
• July 30, 2016: long NY Times article on Ledecky
• June 27, 2016: cruises into 400-meter freestyle finals 
• June 14, 2016: winning another tournament; Ledecky, first; Franklin, fifth 
• June 4, 2016: compare Ledecky with Emil Zatopek
• April 22, 2016: youngest person on Times 100 list of most influential people
• April 19, 2016: wins 800-meter freestyle by almost 15 seconds
• March 31, 2016: featured in Vogue
• March 26, 2016: 19 reasons why Ledecky is cooler than most kids 
• March 8, 2016: feature story in The Washington Post
• December 15, 2015: video of her 1,000-year freestyle 
• December 13, 2015: sets all-time record in the 1000-yard freestyle
• November 23, 2015: named athlete of the year
• August 15, 2015: 8:08, 800-meter 
• August 15, 2015: destroys world mark in 800-meter freestyle
• August 11, 2015: the new face of swimming; Los Angeles Times
• August 8, 2015: 538 Sports -- get Ledecky a time machine 
• August 7, 2015: 200-meter freestyle; wins; video 
• August 7, 2015: takes first in 800-meter preliminaries
• August 6, 2015: the Ledecky slam 
• August 5, 2015: wins the 200-free world title
• August 3, 2015: Ledecky wins 1,500-meter freestyle by 27 seconds
• August 3, 2015: Ledecky makes front page of The WSJ
• August 4, 2015: feature story in national swim journal
• August 2, 2015: tracked here
• September 19, 2014: power player of the week, Chris Wallace, Fox News
• August 9, 2014: Ledecky breaks 400-meter freestyle record
• August 8, 2014: Ledecky beats Missy Franklin in the 200-meter freestyle -- the baton is passed
• May 7, 2014: Ledecky to enter Stanford
• April 7, 2014: Ledecky helps celebrate grand opening of the 50-meter pool at the new Williston Area Recreation Center
• March 28, 2014: Ledecky to be at grand opening of Williston Area Recreation Center
• October 31, 2013: The Williston Wire picks up a story on Ledecky
• June 30, 2013: Ledecky breaks one of the oldest national championship swimming records; beats teammate by 20 seconds in the 1,500 freestyle
• July 18, 2012: just in time for the NBC Olympics coverage