The NY Times On Katie Ledecky -- June 17, 2021

A huge "thank you" to a reader for sending me this link, behind a paywall at The NY Times, but easily found elsewhere. One such link here.

The headline: Katie and Jon Ledecky: two sports, three states and very perfect timing. 

Katie Ledecky’s summer break fell on the calendar five days early as she traveled her longest road through the United States’ swimming trials on Tuesday by scoring 1,900 meters of racing – 2,300 meters within a 24-hour team if you beat her include arduous victory. the 400-meter freestyle late Monday – and qualifies for a third consecutive Olympics.

Her endless day, made even longer by the extra miles she warmed up and down before and after races, was exhausting. But her uncle, Jon Ledecky, may have had it worse.

Sleep can wait for Jon, who is wrestling the best out of a week in which his two biggest sports loves, Katie and the island team he co-owns since 2016, are fighting for places to sleep on their biggest stages. The islanders opened their NHL semifinal series against the Lightning in Tampa on Sunday and Tuesday with two games. Katie, a five-time Olympic gold medalist, opened her ambitious swimming week on Monday with the preliminary round and final of the 400 freestyle.

The Ledeckys are a close-knit family and could not be together in one place for more than a year during holidays and other events due to pandemic-related travel and event restrictions. The swimming trials at CHI Health Center are the first time since Christmas in 2019 that Katie has been with her parents and older brother, Michael. Jon Ledecky did not want to miss the reunion, but Katie was worried about him racing between Long Island, Florida and Nebraska.

Much, much more at the link, obviously. 

For readers new to the blog, Katie Ledecky is a granddaughter of E. J. Hagan, MD, one of my two family practice physicians while growing up in Williston, ND. 

Dr Hagan always seemed so gruff and so serious, but can you imagine being a family practice physician -- when such physicians were also true surgeons and obstetricians -- on the true frontier, not all that far removed in time from the Civil War? Sure, a hundred years in the past, but one needs to remember this was western North Dakota.