Katie Ledecky on Saturday in Tokyo won gold in the 800 meter freestyle, giving her two gold medals and four medals overall in this Olympiad.
The 24-year-old swimmer made fans happy when she shot down retirement talk and said she planned to compete in 2024 and possibly even 2028.
But Ledecky said something after her final event in Tokyo that was surprising.
Ledecky has won seven gold medals and three silver medals during her Olympic career thus far. The American swimmer was asked to reflect on her Olympics accomplishments during an interview that NBC aired on Saturday.
Ledecky said in the interview that winning the medals still hadn’t sunk in for her. In fact, she said that her win at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London still hadn’t sunk in!
Talk about focus! Ledecky won her first Olympic gold medal as a 15-year-old in London. That was nine years ago! But she was so determined to prove in 2016 that she wasn’t a one-hit wonder that she didn’t have time to celebrate her first gold. Instead, she focused on her training and then won four more golds and a silver at Rio in 2016. And she’s added four more medals at the 2020 Summer Games.
Maybe that’s just how it is for the great ones. They’re so focused on what’s next that they don’t stop to think about what’s in the past. We actually heard a very similar comment recently from another great athlete. That’s part of the great athlete mentality.
