"I don't feel close to being finished yet" - Katie Ledecky opens up about hunger for more after Paris Olympics glory, Ariarne Titmus rivalry & more

By V Krishnaswamy

Modified Aug 04, 2024 21:22 GMT

Katie Ledecky is 27 and her cabinet has nine Olympic gold medals, the last of which came late on Saturday, August 3, when she stormed to yet another gold in the 800m freestyle swimming.

With nine gold medals, she joined the Soviet gymnast, Larisa Latynina, who won her ninth gold exactly 60 years ago at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

The world has changed since then. Human beings have been to the moon, social media is the rage, the Berlin Wall has come down, and the world as we knew it has changed.

However, when Ledecky spoke to the media after the ninth gold, we were not sure if she was done as yet.

Asked how she looked at her Olympic Games success and medals, she said, “I don't know. I'll have to tell you in 15 to 20 years, I guess. I hope that I'll look back on it with the same amount of joy and happiness that I feel right now and that I feel every day in training.

"I feel not every time was necessarily what I wanted this week, but I still felt so much joy going out there and racing. I think that's what I'm going to remember the most.

“There's that old quote, I can't remember who said it about how ‘the medals fade, the people forget their times, but you remember the relationships, you remember the emotions that you feel at these kinds of meets', and that's definitely what will stick with me.”

Katie Ledecky has nine Olympic gold medals to her name (IMAGE: GETTY)

The US swimmer has ambition to compete at the 2028 LA Olympics, but no decisions have been set in stone yet. The 27-year-old wants to take it one one year at a time.

Three nights before that after the eighth gold, she said, "I've been consistent over these last few months and last few years in saying that I would love to compete in L.A. and that hasn't changed."

"That could change. I mean, you never know. So, I really just take it year by year at this point and I really haven't thought much beyond this week in terms of what my fall is going to look like, what my next year is going to look like. But yeah, I don't feel like I'm close to being finished in the sport yet."

The eighth gold put Ledecky alongside fellow Americans Dara Torres, Natalie Coughlin, and Jenny Thompson for the most medals ever by a female swimmer.

She then overtook them on Saturday.

Ledecky has been focused on her sport since 15 years of age, when she joined her former coach Bruce Gemmell. From a beginner that day, she is now one of the most successful Olympians. Her dedication and discipline are legendary. She recently confessed to loving training even more than competing.

Supremely confident at most times, as the nine gold medals testify, she believes they have not taken away anxiety, self-doubt, and the rough patches that come with sport at the highest level.

She confessed, “It hasn't been easy. There's so many things that just happen throughout the year. We're in training, getting sick at various points, having really rough days in practice where you question yourself, doubt yourself, have sleepless nights, things like that, where you just start thinking ahead into the future. All those things that you have to get through just to get to these moments.”

“I probably enjoy the training more than the racing. I have absolutely no idea what my fall (autumn) is going to look like in terms of how long of a break I'm going to take, if I'm going to go to any meets. But, honestly, if I could go back to training on September 1, and just train all fall, I'll be one happy camper. It just brings me so much joy to be around my teammates, and just see their improvement, see the work that they put in. We just have so much fun on the side in the weight room, when we're resting on the wall, things like that.”

The weight of history was obvious and she admitted that.

After winning the historic ninth gold, speaking of her emotions, she said, “I think it was a feeling of relief. Coming into the 800, I felt a lot of pressure from myself, from my history in the race. I knew going into it that it was going to be a really tough race and that everyone in the field was going to throw everything they had at me.”

She lost to 23-year-old Ariarne Titmus of Australia in the 400m. Titmus, who won 200m-400m in Tokyo and added 400m and 4x200m gold to make it four gold in all came in for high praise from Ledecky. The American, who probably looks at Titmus as her successor in the sport, said:

“After the race, I just told Ariarne, ‘Thank you for making me better.’ I think we bring the best out of each other. Knowing that you have to step up and race somebody like her at these meets, definitely pushes you in training every day.”

There is every chance that Ledecky and Titmus will be back in 2028 in Los Angeles.