Olympic Gold Medalist swimmer Katie Ledecky of Bethesda, Maryland, a senior at Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart, announced today that she will be deferring her enrollment at Stanford University for one year, until the Fall of 2016. In making this announcement, Ledecky issued the following statement:
“After careful consideration and joint discussion with both my current club coach, Bruce Gemmell of Nation’s Capital Swim Club, and Stanford coach Greg Meehan, I have decided to defer my enrollment at Stanford for one year so that I may continue my training in my home environment in Maryland leading up to the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials. I greatly appreciate the understanding, support, and guidance I received from both Coach Gemmell and Coach Meehan in helping me to reach this decision. I am thrilled and excited to be admitted to Stanford, and I very much look forward to my enrollment there as a student in the Fall of 2016 and swimming in NCAA competition as a member of Coach Meehan’s Stanford team. I also feel so fortunate that both Coach Gemmell and Coach Meehan will be serving as coaches on the USA Swimming National team staff for this summer’s World Championships.”
Ledecky, 18, won the Olympic Gold medal in the 800 Meter Freestyle event as a 15-year-old and as the youngest athlete in the entire Team USA delegation at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. She is the current World Record holder in the 400 Meter Freestyle, 800 Meter Freestyle, and 1500 Meter Freestyle events, and the American Record holder in the 500 Yard Freestyle and 1650 Yard Freestyle. While a high school student at Stone Ridge, Ledecky won ten gold medals in major international competition–including four at the 2013 World Championships and five at the 2014 Pan Pacific Championships–and she broke World Records seven times and American Records thirteen times during her high school years.
She has been recognized by Swimming World Magazine as the World and American Swimmer of the Year, and High School Swimmer of the Year, in each of the past two years. She has also been named USA Swimming’s Athlete of the Year for the past two years, and was named the U.S. Olympic Committee Sportswoman of the Year in 2013. She has qualified to compete in five events for the USA Swimming National Team at the 2015 World Championships this summer in Kazan, Russia.
In high school swimming, Ledecky was a three-time Washington Post All-Met Swimmer of the Year, a 14-time high school All-American, and a member of the Stone Ridge Gators team coached by Bob Walker that won the Independent School League Championship in 2013 and was undefeated in league competition. Ledecky holds the National High School records in the 200 Yard Freestyle and 500 Yard Freestyle events. Ledecky, a high honors student and a USA Swimming Scholastic All-American, will graduate from Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart on June 4.
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Great decision. She is a winner wherever she goes.