In Defeat, We Knew Katie Ledecky Would Be A Winner

by  Charles Hartley

We knew she would be gracious. We knew she wouldn’t make excuses. We knew she wouldn’t be petty or mean or do anything that would turn us off – like some elite athletes do.

We knew, after she came in third place in the 400 freestyle at the Olympics yesterday, that she does not win every race although it has sure seemed that way ever since she won Olympic Gold at the age of 15 in the 800-meter freestyle 12 years ago.

So many wins. So many records. Mountains of supreme success.

A female swimmer the world has never seen before and never will again.

We knew all this.

Now we know this. As stratospherically superb as she has been and is – up there with Michael Jordan, Michael Phelps, Serena Williams, and Wayne Gretzky for utter dominance of her sport – she can be beaten. Super rarely, but it happens.

We know now that Ariarne Titmus, who convincingly beat her for Gold yesterday in the race, has a realistic chance to out-touch her for another Gold in the 800-meter freestyle this week at the Paris Olympics.

We know she can’t keep being invincible forever in all her races. Are we now about to see that invincibility become less of a thing? If so, we know this is inevitable. No one remains great at what they do forever. They get older. They slow down. The body has only so much.

We know she’ll be pushed in the 800 freestyle. We know she’s trained so hard it’s hard to fathom; her being in the water so many consecutive days at 5 am for so many years in a row. We know she’s pushed herself to her mental and physical endpoints.

We know she can win Gold again. We know she may not.

We also know this.

Katie Ledecky is so far beyond heroic that there isn’t even a word to describe her. Katie Ledecky is a thing of wonder, an achiever so awe-inspiring, alluring and mystifying we don’t really have a way of measuring or evaluating how she has affected the world positively. Can’t be counted; it’s too large a number.

Katie Ledecky stands alone for her greatness as a swimmer but also – and this is crucial – for the human being she is.

So humble. Never says a bad thing about anyone else. When you draw up how a person should ideally behave, you draw up Katie Ledecky.

We know her to be kind and not a self-promoter. We know her to have class. We know her to be determined and yet soft-spoken apparently at one with water, swimming, seemingly all the time, her whole life.

Water = Katie. Katie = water.

We know that we love and respect her. We know she deserves that by the way she’s gone about her life.

We know she has style and grit and toughness and flair and keen perceptions and a desire to improve. We know she’s one of the greatest Americans who has ever lived.

We know this will always be true if she doesn’t win another Gold Medal or any medal at all.

We know Katie is the kind of person we should all aspire to be like.