What's next for Katie Ledecky? The toughest event in swimming
If it's not obvious by now, it should be: The only thing Katie Ledecky chases is history.
The 19-year-old swimming superstar is no longer challenged in her marquee distance events, consistently lowering her world records in the 400-, 800- and 1,500-meter freestyles.
She's even mastered the 200 free, which is her least-dominant event — and still an event in which she won an Olympic gold medal this month.
So the question becomes: What's next? How can Ledecky keep growing as an elite athlete and a competitor?
The answer is twofold. First, she will continue to go shorter, swimming the 100 and 200 freestyles to improve in each and also earn relay roster spots in future international meets. That was to be expected.
The second part of the equation is more fascinating: She's going to continue to work on the 400 individual medley, the most grueling of all swimming events and the one that requires all-around excellence. It's 100 meters each of the butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle.
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"I haven't set my goals yet for these next couple of years yet or even this coming year," Ledecky said during her USA Swimming teleconference Monday. "But that's something, once I head out to Stanford and sit down with (head coach) Greg (Meehan), we'll figure out. ... I think it's great to have options. Swimming the 200 free the last couple of years and then this past year getting to be on the 4x100 free relay, it was a tremendous honor. It's something I want to continue doing to have the opportunities to be on those relays, to compete there.
'I'm just trying to get better all around in all events. I think that will probably include the 400 IM in general. I'll be swimming it at meets just to swim different events. If the 400 IM comes along, then it comes along. Then I'll start thinking about it. But I don't think it will take away from my distance events and the freestyle events that I want to focus on. I'm trying to do as best I can in those, first off, and anything more than that, we'll see."
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Ledecky's program in Rio de Janeiro featured only the freestyle. She won gold medals in the 200, 400 and 800 freestyle events and the 4x200 freestyle relay. Her lone silver came as part of the 4x100 free relay.
Before the U.S. Olympic trials, however, her personal coach, Bruce Gemmell, told USA TODAY Sports that the most interesting race to him is the 400 IM. She was entered in it at trials but did not swim it.
But if Gemmell — the person who has seen Ledecky swim more laps than anyone else over the past three years — thinks that event is intriguing as she continues her otherworldly swimming career, it's certainly something she's capable of dominating in the future.
"She's never swum it to date at a world-class level, but certainly she has all of the tools there to do it," Gemmell said in May. "I shouldn't say that she has them right now. She has all of the building blocks right there to do it, and then there's some things we would have to work on to get it to where it's really world-class."
Translation: If she needs a new way to challenge herself, she's found it.
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