Katie Ledecky and Paralympian Brad Snyder Named To Sports Illustrated 50 Fittest Athletes List
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Sports Illustrated recently compiled a list of the 50 most fit men and the 50 most fit women in the world of sports right now. Swimmers Katie Ledecky and Paralympian Brad Snyder both made the list as Ledecky was in the top five for the women’s list.
Ledecky was ranked third on the list behind only track star Allyson Felix and gymnast Simone Biles. The list was assessed on factors including speed, endurance, performances in the last 12 months and other factors. Ledecky has not lost a race over 400 meters at the international level yet in her career. The 20-year-old was dealt her first loss in a major meet this past summer when she was passed by Italian Federica Pellegrini in the 200 free at World Championships.
Ledecky will be a sophomore this year at Stanford where she will look to help the team win its second straight NCAA team title.
Snyder was ranked at 31 as the only paralympian on the men’s list. He is just behind current NBA player Hassan Whiteside and ahead of gymnast Sam Mikulak. Snyder holds the world record in the 100 free for fully blind swimmers. He is 33 years of age and has swum in two Olympics, garnering five gold medals and two silvers at the London and Rio Paralympics.
Snyder is a 2006 graduate of the Naval Academy where he was captain of the swim team. Snyder was also chosen as the flagbearer for the United States at the Closing Ceremony at the 2012 Paralympics.
To see Sport Illustrated’s full women’s list, click here.
To see Sport Illustrated’s full men’s list, click here.
Congratulations
Enlightening
Katie ☺️!
The SI.com piece referenced mistakenly says #1 Simone Biles won “5 Olympic GOLD medals” while saying merely that #3 Katie Ledecky won “5 Olympic medals”. In fact, the actual tallies at the Rio Olympics were Biles 4 Gold, 1 Bronze medal, while Ledecky had 4 Gold, 1 Silver medal and two WRs in her second Olympic Games. Ledecky was named USOC Female Athlete of the Games with the best gold-silver medal performance at a single Olympics by any female Team USA athlete ever in any sport.
Congrats on this Katie, and on representing the U.S. and the sport of swimming so well in so many ways.