Coming off her third successful Olympic Games Katie Ledecky explains the process of how and why she moved to Gainesville. She didn’t say it outright, but it sounds like she wanted to train with the talented Gator men’s distance group. What do you think? Of course coach Anthony Nesty has proven his success training distance swimmers.
Has Katie considered ISL? Apparently not according to this interview. She said World Championships is the priority and focusing on her long course meters training on the run-up to the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. She’d like to race short course meters, but she has nothing planned right now.
I loved this catch-up with Katie, particularly hearing about her time off after the Olympic and actually doing water aerobics.
Katie is back in action at USA Swimming’s Pro Swim in Chicago. That’s not 100% confirmed, but I think she’ll be there, and she’s definitely got her training mojo back.
I’m holding off on the prediction game until after the Pro Swim, but, please, drop in your predictions in the comments.
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Opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the interviewed guests do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints of the hosts, SwimSwam Partners, LLC and/or SwimSwam advertising partners.
This is a Gold Medal Media production presented by SwimOutlet.com. Host Gold Medal Mel Stewart is a 3-time Olympic medalist and the co-founder of SwimSwam.com, a Swimming News website.
Mel,
She didn’t say she did water aerobics, she said she went with her mother to water aerobics and swam some laps. I have done water aerobics for a dozen years in many places and usually they have classes in the shallow end of the small pool. Amazing how many of the participants can’t swim. No lane lines, warm H20, sixty-somthing females. It is often more social than workout, Just don’t see her hopping around in a pool doing water aerobics, especially since she is a tall young woman.
But who knows….
He was saying it must be some water aerobics class to have one of the greatest swimmers ever swimming next to you… it’s hard to believe you didn’t pick up on that
Not that any of this matters, and Eagleswim’s interpretation is correct, but I coached at a Y and saw their water aerobics classes. They usually have both shallow- and deep-water aerobics classes (so choose your poison). I attended one, once, with my lifeguard friend. It was surprisingly difficult. Not in an “I am out of shape” way, but in an “what you’re asking me to do with my legs goes against everything I was taught as a swimmer, and I am finding it very difficult” way.
I also swam next to water aerobics attendees many times. The number of times one of them (or another lap swimmer or open rec attendant) thought they had enough time to amble slowly across… Read more »
Yes, I have done deep water too, again, many can’t swim, and use noodles. Only do shallow water because it is possible to ramp up the inensity and lift heavier weights. Wanted to bump up my cardio and got my oldest daughter to teach me to swim freestyle correctly. Now I lap swim 2 days plus kick and do aerobics 3 days. Lost my husband of 67 yrs, and decided to get myself into shape. Weird but I really enjoy swimming at 85 tho I had never managed a lap across the pool 4 months ago .
They don’t put lane lines up in our 25 yd pool and so one is forced to swim around people who seem… Read more »
ok, cool. hook em
….ok….sorry. I still would like to see Katie do water aerobics. Just saying. She should load a vid to IG with hard pumping music, grinding the water aerobics workout like the training god she is — and play it off as if it’s her daily routine. That IS media I’d like to see… I, in fact, did water aerobics for several months. I was early 30s, not too far from retirement, swimming laps at a Cali pool, and every d#&% Tuesday, my lane line (the lane) would suddenly get more an more narrow. Those women, mostly women (there was one guy) just stopped my worked taking my lane. I got so pissed off, then I thought, what the heck, might… Read more »
Bwahaha! That video might be almost as good as the chocolate milk one.
We don’t have music and my group is older but I can still pump pretty heavy weights in the H20, believe they are 12 lbs resistance, But then i did a lot of gym work when I was younger. Still strong upper body despite being an octogenarian. The 3 guys in the class are afraid to try them. LOL And yes I do this 3 days a week.
Ha! Insiders know the real reason Katie left Stanford was the retirement of my good friend Nicholas “True” Sweetser. True used to SMOKE Katie every practice and his lighthearted approach to every workout is what kept her loving the sport. When it came time to recover True was a great resource for tv shows to watch while recovering from a strenuous day’s work and even introduced Katie to her favorite anime — Highschool DxD!!! With True out of the game making sick beats for me to rap over, Katie needed a new training environment which led her to Florida to train with Finke. While not quite as good (Finke was demolished — physically, mentally and spiritually — by True at… Read more »
Bro… tell me the dxd thing isn’t true
Mel, if you have the chance to talk with Dressel during or after this week’s pro series, please ask him about #Project20.7 and his time goals in other events (100free,50fly,100fly).
I will be very grateful 😇
Sincerely,
Swimfan aka Remel’s biggest fan
I’d be remiss not to also put in a respectful request for him to answer the ULTIMATE question in my user name!
eight
No sure why they so many down votes, but I think they’re questions worth asking. The comment below has the best question. This what I got so far (if anyone else cares to add questions, I’ll check back here):
1- Dressel, what your bench PB? (I’m guessing 320 lbs? What do you all think?)
2 – Project 20.7?
3 – Goals Times? (Which he will not answer, but, Dressel being Dressel, he might offering up something else interesting off that question. He does that a lot.
4- I like Dressel Dissects, and I’d like to know what he intends to dissect next.
5 – Does he intend to be a part of the 4×200????
6 – ???
7 – ???
6- Does he intend to taper for a yards meet to better his 17.6, 42.8 (he had a long turn in that swim), 39.9 (he was very tired on that day)?
7- Will we see him in the Mare Nostrum Circuit after US Trials this May?
Agreed on all questions! I think he regularly works with about 255-275 in the 8-10 rep range or so, and has pushed north of 315 at least once. Also what’s his goal in the 100 free? 46 mid or low???
bench 320? god I hope not or I’ll feel far more inferior than I already do to the man.
Katie has enough money on the side from all her sporting success (not even considering her family) that she doesn’t need to bother with ISL. For her it’s all about the long pool, the rest is fun and games.
truth
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Yes she has been all about long course, still I’d like to see her have a go at SC worlds, and set a time for 800 &1500.
Mel is in his silver Fox era and I love it
…my hair went way whiter during the pandemic…
Great interview and glad she took some time to reflect on the next step! When Nesty opened his email, I bet hers was a nice surprise.
I wonder how much her rent differs in Gainesville vs Palo Alto…
…5x lower, with way more squ footage
Just a guess, but she’s probably one of the most emotionally and spiritually well-grounded world class athletes I can think of — Yes, she’s off the charts!
Old news, recycled news? Isn’t there enough swimming going on to focus on at the moment? I love Katie and she is smart but spread the love
…we check in on all gold medalists ahead of pro swim series events
There are articles about all the conference meets and swimmers, commitments, state champs, technique, dry land, ISL, even fast swimmers getting married, plus age group wonders. There have not been many Ledecky articles, so I think your comment is actually misinformed. I’d argue more attention on Ledecky. You know, the attention the greatest female swimmer of all time, who happens to be a huge supporter of others deserves.
…college news rules Jan-March. We strive to keep the content rolling on elites as well, but there is so much news to cover now. Long hours of work.