The child star is now a legend at 27, but she continues to reach new heights. She won the final race at the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials on Saturday night, and her dominance is routine but still as impressive as ever. Next stop: the Olympics in Paris.
Ledecky's dominating victory in the 800-meter freestyle booked her program for Paris, where she will compete in three individual events and possibly one relay, with 10 Olympic medals to her name already, seven of them gold.
“It was a great week. More than anything, it was a great week for our sport,” Ledecky told NBC. “I was just happy to be able to come to this meet and get the job done in the events that I wanted to do.”
Saturday's win gives Ledecky a chance to win the 800-meter freestyle gold medal at four consecutive Summer Olympics since her surprise victory as a 15-year-old at the 2012 London Olympics. No woman has ever won three consecutive Olympic gold medals in any swimming event.
But there has never been a female Olympian quite like Ledecky, and no swimmer has ever recorded the 800 meters that Ledecky has. Her winning time on Saturday was 8:14.12, more than six and a half seconds faster than runner-up Paige Madden (8:20.71), but it was far short of her world record (8:04.79) and just the 35th best time ever. It was her second-fastest time this year, and it's certainly one she'll be hoping to improve on in Paris.
“It's time to get back to work. I have to get ready for Paris,” she told the crowd. “I'm going to take a little break, but I have a lot of work to do.”
The win ended Ledecky's trials, where she swam 6,000 meters (about 3¾ miles) over eight days. Although she won all four races she competed in, she will not compete in the 200 freestyle in Paris, as she wants to focus on longer distances.
The final day of competition on Saturday featured some star athletes who will boost the U.S. team's prospects in Paris.
Kate Douglas also finished the Trials with a strong swim, winning the 200m individual medley in 2:06.79. She beat University of Virginia teammate Alex Walsh (2:07.86) by more than a second. Douglas's program for Paris is set and is expected to feature a series of tough and unprecedented races.
She will be the first American woman to compete in the individual freestyle, breaststroke and individual medley at an Olympic Games. The 22-year-old also won the 100-meter freestyle and 200-meter breaststroke here.
“I guess my goal going into this meet was to win all three events and I didn't think I'd achieve it,” she said, “so I'm really happy that I did.”
Douglas will likely be on the second or third team in Paris and could have a chance to win five or six medals. Natalie Coughlin is the only American woman to win six medals in one Olympic Games.
Caleb Dressel also secured a chance at multiple medals in Paris with a time of 50.19 seconds in the 100m butterfly. After eight months away from competition, Dressel didn't hide his excitement as he slapped the water and roared to the stadium roof after his best butterfly time since April 2022.
“It's tough to get through the preliminaries,” said Dressel, the world record holder in the 100 butterfly and the defending Olympic champion. “That's really the hardest part.”
He won the 50m freestyle the night before and is set to compete in at least one relay and possibly more in Paris.
Fan-favorite Simone Manuel is also preparing for her individual events in Paris, having posted the fourth-fastest time in the 50-meter freestyle in Saturday's semifinals, clocking 24.51 seconds. Gretchen Walsh, who set a world record in the 100-meter butterfly earlier in the meet, ran a best time of 24.06 seconds in the semifinals, just 0.03 seconds faster than Tori Huske. The Walsh sisters are one of two sibling pairs on the U.S. team for Paris, joining Aaron and Alex Shackel.
The men's 50m freestyle final and the men's 1,500m freestyle final will take place on Sunday evening.
This story will be updated.
