We’ve seen Katie Ledecky crown herself Olympic champion on multiple occasions and smash world records the past couple weeks in Rio, and now she’ll get a chance to show off some land sport skill in Washington, D.C., tonight.
Ledecky’s been asked to throw out the first pitch at tonight’s Washington Nationals game, which starts at 7:05pm ET. The Nationals will face off against the Baltimore Orioles, the hometown team of Michael Phelps.
A native of Bethesda, Maryland, Ledecky grew up just outside of Washington, D.C., and has actually thrown out the first pitch at a Nationals game in the past. Ledecky threw the first pitch in Game One of the 2014 National League Division Series, but this time, she’ll be doing so as a four-time individual Olympic champion.
This week has been big for dual-sport baseball-swimming fans. On Sunday, Olympian Kelsi Worrell threw out the first pitch at the Philadelphia Phillies game.
While most college students have already began school, or are about to head back, Ledecky isn’t in a huge rush to arrive at Stanford. She may have to get to campus earlier than other Stanford students for training, but their academic year won’t begin until September 26th, when the first quarter begins.
Brilliant! I hope she smokes it. She’s way fitter than any of these so-called athletes: if anyone can “break” these guys, it’s Katie.
Hopefully she can throw better than Sun Yang…
Do you guys think she’ll lap second place in the mile next year at NCAAs? It’s definitely in play.
Last year’s winner Leah Smith’s 1600 split was 15:05, so I agree, it’s in the realm of possibility. But if Ledecky also swimming on Stanford’s 400 Free Relay at end of that last session, there is less reason for her to go for a blow-out time. I wouldn’t be surprised if Ledecky’s best 1650 happens earlier in the season, either at their November suited meet or at Pac 12’s in February.
Yeah but its not like Stanford will need a big-time split from her on the relay. They’ll have Manuel, Neal, and her. It doesn’t even matter who the 4th girl is at that point, they’re going to absolutely crush the field.
Competition for the 4th spot on the relay will be interesting in its own right. At least two of these three are not likely to swim in finals: Janet Hu (47.94), Katie Drabot (48.36) or Ella Eastin (47.97 relay split).
I’m more interested in seeing how high she would place in the men’s 1650 at ncaa’s.
Great as she is, I still don’t think she’d qualify for men’s NCAAs. Gotta be down around 15 minutes. Maybe though, she’s certainly not showing signs of peaking.
She is comfortably under the Men’s B standard for NCAA’s. That’s not to say she would quite makes selection, but he world record time of 15:13 should certainly fall…I’d say by at least a few more seconds (and it could be more considering the distance).
Either way she should be recognized for what she is doing for women’s athletics and the sport in general without being compared to people she wouldn’t ever compete against anyhow.