Katie Ledecky Appears at Tech Conference; Discusses Career Steps and How to Manage Goals
On the second day of MetLife’s 2024 Triangle Tech X Conference, Katie Ledecky sat down for a 20-minute long interview to highlight some of her experiences throughout her career. The conversation went through all four of Ledecky’s Olympic appearances, and the distance legend was candid about the challenges of balancing swimming at a world class level while managing high school and later college.
Here is a look at what Ledecky discussed.
Goal Setting
Katie Ledecky of United States of America shows the bronze medal after competing in the swimming 400m Freestyle Women Final during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at La Defense Arena in Paris (France), July 27, 2024.
When you’re as successful as Katie Ledecky, setting new goals can be a difficult experience to keep yourself hungry. Ledecky has been open about discussing her goals throughout her career, and in this case described her detailed goal setting process leading up to the 2016 Olympics.
Two years out from Rio, Ledecky set exact time goals for her events, and wrote them on a pull buoy that she used every day. By writing them down, she described the strength those goals took on, as they physically carried her through every practice every day. In Rio, Ledecky stormed to gold individually in the 200, 400, and 800 freestyles. She added two relay medals. Once she had reached her goal times in her first two events, it became a forgone conclusion in her brain that her final swim would result in another goal time being achieved.
Falling Short and Getting Up
With the types of goals that Ledecky sets and the caliber of athlete that she is, sometimes she’ll fall short. Describing it in STEM terms, she noted how she learns from each experience,
“You set a goal, that’s kind of like a hypothesis, and then you set the plan, you lay out the steps of getting there,” she said. “And then, you reach a conclusion, and then you reset a hypothesis (or goal).”
By choosing to learn from each of her performances, Ledecky continuously is looking toward the future.
Now a Florida Gator, Ledecky has been training under Anthony Nesty for three years. Nesty, himself, is a two-time Olympian and gold medalist, and has carried on the Gator legacy of high yardage training after the retirement of Gregg Troy. Even when you’re the best in the world, you have bad days in practice.
After over a decade on the world stage and 50 international medals to her name, Ledecky remains extremely down to Earth. With all the expectations and outside stress factors that can come with being an Olympic athlete, she focuses on the factors she can control. While her goals and her training are important, she emphasized maintaining a life outside of the water as well.
More, with a world class athlete comes a world class support system. For Ledecky, her family has been her biggest support, even before she broke out to Olympic gold. The support was always given with love. Since her international debut, her family has made it to every Worlds/Olympics (outside of the Covid delayed Tokyo Games).
The Disruption Advantage
Photo Courtesy: Giorgio Scala/DeepBlueMedia
The theme for this year’s Triangle Tech X Conference was the ‘Disruption Advantage.’ Disruption typically comes with a negative connotation. However, the goal of the conference was to show revolutionary individuals in various fields ‘disrupting’ for the better. Ledecky has been disrupting the sport of swimming for 12 years. She disrupted the sport when she stunned Rebecca Adlington in the 800 freestyle final to win gold at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
In that London 800 free final, the commentators of the race did not factor in Ledecky. When she stormed to an early lead, it was dismissed as a young inexperienced athlete who the veterans would catch. However, her lead grew. The world record threatened, Ledecky won gold with the thought in the back of her mind to not be a “one-hit wonder.”
In 2024, Ledecky disrupted swimming in a different way. The common mentality is that to be an Olympic gold medal caliber distance swimmer, your odds are better if you’re younger. Well, Ledecky is now the oldest and the youngest in Olympic history to win gold in the 800 free. Should she win in 2028 at age 31, she’d be the oldest to win the 800 freestyle in history by a decade. She has changed the game in everything she’s done.
How STEM Has Aided Ledecky’s Career
When you’re 14-time Olympic medalist Katie Ledecky, there are not many large changes you need to make to improve. As technology has advanced, it has allowed swimming to advance in tandem with it. Analyzing race footage has become the standard at every level of swimming, drastically improving the learning capabilities that are out there.
The ability to analyze entry into the water, race splits, stroke form at a slow motion speed, all contribute toward improvement. Even from a young age, Ledecky fell in love with the analytical side of the sport, setting goals and measuring how far she was away from them after every swim.
It can be a difficult balance, when you win as often as Katie Ledecky, to find ways to reinvent yourself. Ledecky is a six-time world champion in the 800 freestyle, a metric she admittedly has forgotten to keep track of when considering her year-by-year approach. As her swimming career has progressed, she’s measured the time through the stages she has been at in her life.
Ledecky Outside of the Pool
Katie Ledecky of United States of America prepares to compete in the 400m. Freestyle women during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at La Defense Arena in Paris (France), July 27, 2024.
Continuing with the theme of a life outside of swimming, the topic of what Ledecky likes to do for fun arose. At Stanford University, Ledecky majored in psychology. She branched out and took classes in computer science, communications, anything that sounded interesting. By constantly finding new ways to reinvent and reflect, she found new ways to view her time in swimming.
One of the things she has enjoyed the most outside of the water is the friendships swimming has brought into her life. Chris von Saltza, a 1960 Olympic champion and Hall of Famer, shares a Stanford connection with Ledecky. Over the years, Ledecky and the now 80 year old Bay Area native have developed a strong friendship.
For von Saltza, she did not have the opportunities an athlete like Ledecky has enjoyed. In the 1960s, Stanford did not have a women’s swimming program, resulting in von Saltza retiring at just 18 years old. Meanwhile, Ledecky is 27 and still charting new paths forward in the sport. The four-time Olympian now sees her chances as something she owes to past generations, and is intent on improving opportunities for young swimmers around the world who will follow Ledecky.
Katie Ledecky 2012 vs. Katie Ledecky 2024
What advice would Katie Ledecky provide to her younger self?
At age 15 in 2012, Ledecky had no shortage of veterans to advise her in her first Olympics. Michael Phelps was heading into his first retirement. Natalie Coughlin was at her fourth Olympics. Matt Grevers was leading the way for U.S. backstroke. Dana Vollmer set a world record en route to Olympic gold. The legacies featured on Team USA in London offered the perfect education for a future leader.
Now the veteran, Ledecky has enjoyed being in the leadership role. She advises young athletes constantly to enjoy the sport as much as they can. Capture the joy swimming brings you and harness it.
Will Ledecky Swim in 2028?
While Ledecky will be 31 in 2028, she has her eyes and goals set on a fifth Olympic Games. With that target in mind, she is taking things year by year. With her legacy secure as one of the greatest swimmers in history, she has nothing left to prove.
Ultimately, Ledecky capped her fantastic interview on an inspiring note. She has reinvented swimming on a foundational level for 12 years and counting. Every time we think she can’t break a new record or reach a new goal, she stuns the world. Clearly, her career has set the tone for inspiring future generations for years to come.