“Great to keep my mind occupied” – When Katie Ledecky opened up about her life at Stanford
US swimmer Katie Ledecky has had a really great couple of years. The decorated athlete not only picked up four medals, 2 gold, and 2 silver, at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 but also graduated from Stanford University in 2020.
Ledecky, who majored in psychology with a minor in political science, had an unusual graduation year. When the world came to a halt in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ledecky took the previous year off and decided to finish her degree virtually in 2020.
She told People magazine about it at the Team USA Tokyo Olympics media summit last year, prior to the Tokyo Olympics. She said:
"I actually graduated this past fall. I re-enrolled in classes at the start of the pandemic. The start of spring quarter at Stanford coincided perfectly with the postponement of the Olympics and the pandemic..."
"...I had been taking the 2019-2020 Olympic year off and in March 2020, I was able to hop back into classes virtually and finish up my degree. I took a full load of classes in the spring, summer, and in fall. It was really great."
The Tokyo Olympics, which were originally supposed to take place in 2020, were postponed by a year. In such trying times, Katie Ledecky discovered that finishing her degree and graduating provided a "silver lining" to her year and kept her mind occupied.
Ledecky went on to discuss the types of classes she had taken and how one such subject that was scheduled prior to the pandemic was modified to fit the current situation. She said:
"I took some really interesting classes in the spring, which was right at the beginning of the pandemic. I took a class called 'Global Change and Emerging Infectious Disease.' That class was scheduled before the pandemic really broke out so they adapted the class to focus on coronavirus and take a few classes, usually one per week or one every two weeks, to do a deep dive and answer questions."
Through the class Katie Ledecky was able to interact with experts, including one of her professors, who were on actually on call during the pandemic. She mentioned:
"We had some of the experts in the country on calls. One of our professors was working with the state of California on the response so we got a little insight. It was really neat just to hear from experts when I think we were watching the news a little more frequently than we ever were."
To top it all off, Katie Ledecky was not only learning at one of the best universities in the world, but she was also training there under coach Greg Meehan, who was the head coach of the women's team in Tokyo.
"I've had this amazing experience at a school I really love and a great place with great people" - Katie Ledecky
Unlike many world-class athletes, Katie Ledecky went pro only a few years before the Tokyo Olympics, despite winning an Olympic gold medal at the age of 15 in London.
Even though many people thought she should go pro after the Olympics in Rio, Ledecky made the conscious decision not to. She wanted to compete in collegiate competitions with the Stanford swim team before going pro. Her coach, Greg Meehan, was supportive of her decision. Unsurprisingly, She is an NCAA champion in multiple events and has won two national championships for Stanford.
After two years, Katie Ledecky decided to go pro with focus on the Tokyo Olympics and signed with Wasserman sports agent Dan Levy for representation. Speaking about the timing of that decision, she rued:
"We (her and coach Greg Meehan) had a lot of discussions and we both felt like it would be really good to turn pro after those first two years of collegiate swimming, kind of projecting out to Tokyo and thinking that if I were to swim four years of Stanford collegiate swimming, that would take me right to Tokyo. This is back when it was going to be 2020. And we felt like I needed a little bit of an adjustement period being a professional swimmer...''
''...So, I didn't want to turn pro in March of 2020 with the Olympics being in August of 2020. We felt like I needed kind of a year buffer and so I turned pro in April of 2018 coming off of my second national championship with Stanford. I am very happy with that decision."
She also felt that her decision helped her train with both the collegiate and professional teams at Stanford. Katie Ledecky went on to say that she had a fantastic support system at Stanford. She noted:
"It's really fun to cheer each other on and have that extra support system and community. It's just another thing I've added to my toolbox, I guess, leading into Tokyo that I haven't had in the past in past Olympic cycles. I've had this amazing experience at a school I really love and a great place with great people. I'm really thankful for that kind of support."
Katie Ledecky announced in September of last year that she would be changing bases to the University of Florida to train for the 2024 Olympics in Paris.