Katie Ledecky Hopes Her Tokyo Olympics 2020 Story ‘Inspires’ Young American Women to Dream Big

If the Tokyo Olympics 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that human strong will can overcome any sort of adversity. Athletes from the world over travelled to Japan last month, in the midst of a pandemic, for one sole purpose – to represent their nation and become a symbol of hope back home. One of them, was United States of America swimmer, Katie Ledecky.

Ledecky arrived in Tokyo as a firm favourite to take home multiple gold medals in various swimming events. The Stanford University alumni rose to fame in 2016 after she won four gold medals and one silver medal. Ledecky, who is a close friend of legendary American Olympian Michael Phelps, hoped to build on that performance in 2020.

She started off her Tokyo Olympics 2020 adventure with a silver in the women’s 400m freestyle. She finished behind Australian swimmer Ariarne Titmus. Ledecky failed to reach the podium for the 200 m freestyle event but won gold in the 800m and 1500m freestyle event. She concluded her second full-fledged Olympics campaign with a silver in the women’s 4 x 200m relay.

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Katie Ledecky has a message for young American athletes and swimmers

Speaking to Access Interview following her triumphant Olympic display, Katie Ledecky put forth an interesting point – directed towards all the up-and-coming swimmer/athletes across America.

“I hope it inspires a lot of young women….Personally, I didn’t think that I would ever make it to the Olympics when I first started swimming. When I watched these Olympians I thought you got to be some superhero and I had no interest in how you qualify for these games. But as I got older, I got closer and closer to qualifying…I could just feel it getting closer and closer.”

“So I hope a lot of young kids are inspired to make their way up in whatever it is they’re passionate about….I found something I love and I found something that I’m pretty good at and I try to be the best that I could be at it,” Ledecky said in an earlier interview.

When it comes to role models, Ms. Ledecky is right up there with some of the greatest Olympians of all time. So when she says something like this kids, you ought to listen.

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