It’s not every day that you get to learn what the fans of a rival country think of athletes in your country. However, thanks to X (formerly Twitter) user em (@jidantamago) swimming fans in the U.S. got to know how Chinese enthusiasts view American athletes. On that note, among the various nicknames that Chinese social media users gave to U.S. athletes, Katie Ledecky‘s nickname stood out.

The X user scoured the popular Chinese social media app Weibo to gather the most commonly used nicknames for American swimmers. It turns out they view Katie Ledecky as not just a dominant champion but a force comparable to arguably the most powerful form of energy humanity has harnessed: nuclear power.

“Katie Ledecky: 核少女 Nuclear Girl, because her strength and stamina can be described as nuclear,” revealed em. It seems the seven-time Olympic gold medalist has built a formidable reputation. There’s a good reason why the Chinese are in awe of Ledecky’s strength and stamina: she excels in longer distances.

The 26-time World Championships medalist’s best events range from 200 to 1500 meters. While 50-meter and even 100-meter races are about short bursts of power, anything above 200 meters tests how long a swimmer can sustain their power. Team USA’s best middle-distance swimmer has dominated these long-distance races since 2017. Like nuclear energy, the 27-year-old seems to have an endless power supply in the pool.

Another reason the U.S. swimmer commands such respect on the global stage is that she is constantly setting the bar and then beating it herself. During the 2023 U.S. Olympic Trials at Lucas Oil Stadium, Katie Ledecky finished, a mindboggling 20 seconds ahead of the second-fastest swimmer, Katie Grimes. However, the Chinese fans have far less scary and inventive nicknames for other U.S. swimming stars.

How they view Katie Ledecky’s teammates across the ocean

Chinese swimming fans gave a 21x World Championships gold medalist a nickname based on her skills. However, they didn’t do the same for other U.S. Olympians. Weibo users call Hunter Armstrong the Astronaut because he shares his last name with Neil Armstrong. Caeleb Dressel’s nickname isn’t based on his seven-time gold medal-winning Olympic career either.

“Caeleb Dressel: 奇葩 Weird/Silly. someone on Weibo explained that it’s because he used to post things on social media that were really funny/silly/weird,” revealed the X-user’s post. Meanwhile, Lilly King is known as “Wang Lili” which is simply the “Chinese version” of the swimmer’s name.

People often have preconceived notions about athletes from rival nations, but these ideas often don’t match reality. However, em’s post showed how the people of Team USA’s top rival countries respect and admire athletes such as Katie Ledecky, Caeleb Dressel, and others.