Katie Ledecky is coming for it all. Members of Team USA have landed in the French capital and will begin their quest for golden glory, with the 27-year-old at the helm, leading the charge. Participating in her fourth Olympic Games, the Stanford graduate is on the brink of swimming immortality, and her dedication is making even her teammates stare in awe.

After winning the first-ever women’s 1500m freestyle race in Tokyo three years ago, Ledecky now has the chance to become the first female swimmer to successfully defend the title. She showed her determination at the US Olympic Team Trials in Indianapolis last month. With a stunning time of 15:37.35, Katie secured her place on the national team, and her male counterparts seemed to be waving the white flag already.

In an article by Sports Illustrated, the 2020 Olympic men’s 1500m freestyle gold medalist Bobby Finke shared his admiration for this year’s captain of the women’s swimming squad. Mentioning how his colleague is “a beast in practice,” the University of Florida star went on to state, “We have some Friday afternoon sets where she is just hammering away and I’m trying to chase her down.” However, Bobby had to confess that he rarely manages to catch up to the phenomenon that is Katie Ledecky.

“It’s been scary, amazing,” said Finke, further highlighting how competing against Ledecky helps him to push himself further. The Bethesda native is so at home in the water that Bobby is always propelled by the thought of being handed another defeat whenever they get in the pool together. “If I’m doing good, it’s like, ‘OK, how far ahead am I of Katie? She might catch me on the last one’,” summarized Finke about his feelings.

Along with Finke, Katie’s other colleagues also have high hopes for her to extend the brilliant reputation she has earned over the decades. Ledecky’s coach Anthony Nesty almost blind confidence in her prowess and her hunger to prove herself to the world over and over again. “I can tell you, she wants to swim forever,” Nesty was quoted in the article.

However, while her peers seem to place her in a high mantle, Ledecky has her own concerns about the Olympics and hopes the issues will be addressed with promptness.

Katie Ledecky has her reservations about experiencing a healthy competition

The swimming world has been in a state of flux ever since the WADA’s controversial decision to let 23 Chinese swimmers compete in Tokyo despite all of them failing the drug test. Ledecky was among the members of Tea USA who were handed a defeat three years ago by the Chinese women’s team and had to settle for a silver. Referring to how her confidence in WADA’s policies is at an “all-time low“. On the other hand, she went on to state that she hopes this year the playing field will be even for all the participants and noted a clean tournament is something everyone is looking forward to.

However, while it still remains to be seen how things pan out, Katie made it apparent that she and her teammates will be giving their best irrespective of who they’re pitted against at the competition. Well, considering how Ledecky is set to participate in four events in this year’s Games (400m free, 800m free, 1500m free, and 4x200m free relay) she needs to focus more on the task at hand instead of pondering if her competitors are coming to Paris with some extra tricks up their sleeves.

How do you see Katie’s fourth Olympics unfolding in the coming days? Tell us your predictions in the comments!