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The evolution of Katie Ledecky: As Olympics near, U.S. swimming star comes full circle
Follow our Olympics coverage in the lead-up to the Paris Games.
In April, Bruce Gemmell received a phone call from someone who had changed his life more than a decade ago. They text frequently, so it wasn’t strange to hear from her. But what she asked of him made him laugh.
Katie Ledecky’s first question was quintessential Katie: Hey, I’m coming home to Maryland for a few days in May. Can I train with you?
An easy yes from her old swim coach.
Then: Oh, by the way, when I’m home, I’m going to the White House to get the Presidential Medal of Freedom. I’m hoping you’d be free to come as my guest. I don’t want to impose or anything.
“She really said it that way,” Gemmell said, chuckling. “I said, ‘Yes, of course, I would love to go.’”
Heading into the day, he figured the coolest part would be meeting President Joe Biden; Gemmell is a Delaware native, and his wife had interned for then-Senator Biden at one point. It’d be a nice little full-circle moment.
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But Gemmell’s main takeaway was something different, something far more significant to the man who had trained the most dominant female swimmer in the sport’s history during her most dominant stretch, starting after the London Olympics and running through the Rio Games. He started working with her when she was 15, very quiet and even more shy.
And he watched 27-year-old Katie Ledecky work the room, taking photos with those who asked and speaking with people from all walks of life.
“She was the star of the show as far as I’m concerned — maybe sharing it with Nancy Pelosi,” Gemmell said. “It was absolutely a sign of growth from that somewhat awkward, not-socially-competent 15-year-old who burst on the scene in London to win an Olympic gold medal.
“Watching her evolution from 15 to 27, being in complete control of a room with all these powerful, rich politicians and dignitaries, it’s just heartwarming to see that with her. And during that same period of time, my daughter has gone from a little child, toddler type of thing to somebody who is now powering around the world to swim meets with Katie Ledecky.”
Gemmell’s daughter, Erin, who was 7 when Ledecky began training with her father, is on the U.S. Olympic team alongside her. The little girl who once dressed up as Katie Ledecky for Halloween qualified to be part of the women’s 4×200-meter freestyle relay with her. Erin, now 19, punched her ticket by finishing fourth in the 200-meter freestyle event in Indianapolis — the top four finishers automatically qualify — and as she looked up at the video board to confirm she’d just made her first Olympic team, Ledecky swam across two lanes with a big smile to hug her.
Now that is a full-circle moment.
Katie Ledecky, right, embraces Erin Gemmell after the 200-meter freestyle at the U.S. Olympic trials. Gemmell has long looked up to Ledecky, who was once coached by Gemmell’s dad. (Sarah Stier / Getty Images)
“She’s been such a big influence,” Erin said. “I don’t think I would really be here if it weren’t for her. It’s really special to be able to be that close to someone who is so inspirational, getting to see the day-to-day work that they put in. It makes it seem more achievable in a way, being so close. It makes them seem a lot more human.”
When Erin met Ledecky, she was “terrified” of her. Erin also characterizes herself as “definitely an annoying child,” so she can’t believe how kind and welcoming Ledecky was to her. And though her older brother, Andrew, has Olympic experience as a swimmer and her dad has plenty of it as a coach, Erin can’t believe how lucky she is to experience Paris and the lead-up alongside Ledecky.
Her father can’t believe his luck, either. Erin isn’t one to send photos or updates from training camp — Team USA trained in North Carolina and later in Croatia — but Ledecky will send selfies of the two. Ledecky is not just Erin’s role model; she’s basically her older sister. She’s in charge of parent updates, and Erin is in charge of nail painting.
“Katie is (in) the top very small number of swimmers, probably the best female ever,” Bruce Gemmell said. “But her qualities as an individual are at another level. I say that fondly … with tears in my eyes.”
Ledecky herself has always understood her power and influence. It’s part of the reason she was quiet and shy for so long; that’s who she is, but it’s also how she wanted to come across to the world. She’s a serious woman with big goals she has spent her entire career working toward. And she’s not anywhere near the finish line yet. She has said she plans to compete at age 31 in the Los Angeles Olympics, which would be her fifth Games.
But even now, with the Paris Games just days away, she knows she is already a veteran on the national team. On the women’s side alone are two 17-year-olds (Alex Shackell, Claire Weinstein), an 18-year-old (Katie Grimes, who qualified in the 400- and 1,500-meter freestyle and the open-water event) and Erin. The average age of the women’s team is 22.1 years old.
Ledecky is also one of the most accomplished female Olympians, with seven gold medals. In Paris, she could break the record held by gymnast Larisa Latynina, who won nine gold medals for the Soviet Union in the 1950s and ’60s. Ledecky is the favorite in the 800- and 1,500-meter freestyle events, so to break the record she would need only an upset win in either the 4×200-meter freestyle relay (Australia will be the favorite) or the 400-meter freestyle (Aussie Ariarne Titmus and Canadian phenom Summer McIntosh are the top contenders).
Katie Ledecky shows off her gold medal from the 800-meter freestyle at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. She’ll be favored in that and the 1,500-meter again in Paris. (Oli Scarff / AFP via Getty Images)
At Ledecky’s peak in Rio de Janeiro, she won gold in events as short as the 200 free. Recovery looked different at age 19, too. But Ledecky doesn’t see medals that aren’t silver or gold as a failure. She finds value in the work itself — and in her own consistency.
“I pride myself on that consistency,” Ledecky said. “I challenge myself to stay consistent. Yeah, I mean, sometimes it can be tough feeling like you’re not having a breakthrough. But to be really consistent is something I’m really happy with. I’ve learned to just really enjoy each day of training and take in every moment and just appreciate the fact that I’ve been able to have this long of a career, stay injury-free, stay pretty healthy, be able to do this for this many years.”
She has also embraced her role as an elder statesman of the sport. She’s the one who darts over to find the Erins of the world to celebrate with them. She said her favorite message to her first-time Olympian teammates is the one she received from her first coach, Yuri Suguiyama, ahead of London in 2012. He told her she deserved to be on that team, she earned it and she belonged. That’s been Ledecky’s message to her younger teammates: You belong.
Ledecky remembers what it was like to be young and in love with swimming, not knowing where it could take you. She knows what that amazement feels like; she knows some of her teammates might even be intimidated by being on a roster alongside her. But she keeps perspective. She paints her nails red, white and blue. She sends selfies, commemorating the little and the big moments. That’s how she got here, at the precipice of even more history.
“I never dreamed of that as a young kid, to make an Olympics,” Ledecky said. “So, after London … I wanted to get back to that level to prove that I wasn’t just a one-hit wonder. But at the same time, I reminded myself that anything more than that was like icing on the cake, cherry on top, whatever. Because, again, I just never thought I’d make it to that one Olympics.
“That’s the perspective that I think I’ve been able to maintain, that keeps me focused and keeps me enjoying the sport so much while enjoying the teammates and the people that are around me.”
GO DEEPER
Behind Caeleb Dressel’s Olympic return, ‘a work in progress’ to rekindle his love for swimming
(Top illustration: Eamonn Dalton / The Athletic; photo of Katie Ledecky: Al Bello / Getty Images)
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The face of baseball will not be at Tuesday’s All-Star Game.
Shohei Ohtani was scratched from his start on Friday as the Los Angeles Dodgers said he will also miss the Midsummer Classic with what the team called left knee irritation.
Ohtani, for obvious reasons, has become an All-Star Game fixture. He has earned the honor in each of the past five seasons and made his first start in 2021.
Starting pitcher Shohei Ohtani #17 of the Los Angeles Dodgers warms up before the MLB game against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field on June 03, 2026 in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images) (Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
The two-way phenom is on his way to winning his fifth MVP award in his last six seasons as he is hitting .290 with a .939 OPS and pitching to a minuscule 1.79 ERA, the second-lowest in the sport among pitchers with 80-plus innings. His OPS is also the seventh-best mark in the league.
The Dodgers said Ohtani will be the team’s designated hitter up until the break, but he will “have some interventions on his knee to put him in the best position for the second half of the season.”
Ohtani dealt with knee issues earlier in the season.
It is certainly a big hit for the game as the other face of the sport, Aaron Judge, will miss the game due to a fractured rib that has kept him out since late May.
Shohei Ohtani #17 of the Los Angeles Dodgers gets ready in the on deck circle against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field on June 01, 2026 in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo by Norm Hall/Getty Images) (Norm Hall/Getty Images)
DODGERS WILL AGAIN VISIT WHITE HOUSE TO CELEBRATE WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONSHIP, OFFICIAL SAYS
Ohtani hit 99 home runs combined in 2024 and 2025, leading the National League with a 1.025 OPS in that span. Ohtani did not pitch in 2024 after elbow surgery but returned to the bump last year and owned a 2.87 ERA and 11.9 K/9, a figure he also put up in 2022 that led the American League.
The “Japanese Babe Ruth” is the only player in MLB history to have 300-plus plate appearances and 40-plus innings in six separate seasons (Ruth only did it twice and never stole 50 bases), and he has more than excelled at both.
Shohei Ohtani pitches for the Los Angeles Dodgers against the San Francisco Giants at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, California, on May 13, 2026. (Gary A. Vasquez/Imagn Images)
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Ohtani is not hitting like he has in the past, but certainly the best pitching performance of his career will make up for it. He “only” has 20 homers and 56 RBI this season.
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If Mikel Merino is sleeping, please don’t wake him. If the last week has been a dream, he’d just as soon keep dreaming.
Because on Friday, for the second time in five days, Merino came off the bench for the final five minutes of a World Cup knockout game and scored the winning goal, the latest lifting Spain to a 2-1 victory over Belgium and into next week’s semifinal against France in Arlington, Texas.
“Not even in my wildest dreams could I have imagined what’s happening right now, right?” Merino said in Spanish. “Honestly, it’s crazy.”
How crazy? Merino has played less than 10 minutes in the last two games and has two goals. He’s taken four shots in the World Cup and put two of them in the back of the net, the first in stoppage time to beat Portugal in the Round of 16 and in the 88th minute Friday to beat Belgium in a quarterfinal and extend Spain’s unbeaten to streak to 36 games.
“I don’t really even know what to say. I still can’t quite believe it,” Merino said.
Yet Spain’s final substitution, which brought on Merino in the 86th minute, wasn’t the only one that figured heavily in the result. Fifteen minutes earlier Belgian coach Rudi Garcia sent backup goalkeeper Senne Lammens on for Thibaut Courtois — not by choice, by necessity.
The dropoff in talent wasn’t great — Lammens started 32 times for Manchester United this season — but the difference in experience was. Courtois was playing in his 21st World Cup game, second-most all-time, and he had been brilliant up to then.
But he tweaked a muscle making a save minutes earlier and dropped to the turf just before the second-half hydration break. After being attended to by the team’s trainers, he tried to continue but couldn’t, eventually hobbling to the sideline and collapsing on the bench in tears.
“We didn’t want his injury to get worse. That’s why I subbed him off,” Garcia said.
“It’s part and parcel of high-level sport. You need to be concentrated, 100% focused, and need to be able to perform. I did not want to put players on the pitch who were not 100%.”
The margin between Belgium and Spain, after all, is a small one, even if the teams took completely different routes to the quarterfinal.
Spain, which hadn’t gone past the Round of 16 in a World Cup since 2010 when it won its only title, had gone a record six games and 609 minutes without allowing a World Cup goal, dating to the group stage of the last tournament four years ago.
Spain midfielder Mikel Merino scores off a rebound in front of Belgium goalkeeper Senne Lammens during the second half of Spain’s 2-1 quarterfinal win in the World Cup quarterfinals Friday at SoFi Stadium.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
You could binge watch two seasons of “Abbott Elementary” in that time.
But if Spain, the reigning European champion, and goalkeeper Unai Simón were the immovable objects, Belgium, playing in the quarterfinals for the third time in four World Cups, was an unstoppable force. With 12 goals in the last three games, it entered the quarterfinals with the third-most goals in the tournament. And no team had taken more shots.
Spain struck first, with Fabián Ruiz giving La Roja a 1-0 lead with his first goal of the tournament in the 30th minute. The sequence started with Pedro Porro sending a cross into the box for Dani Olmo, whose shot was parried away by Courtois. But Ruiz pounced on the rebound and deflected a shot off defender Timothy Castagne and into the back of the net.
In any other game of this tournament, that would have been enough for Simón. But not against Belgium, which ended Spain’s shutout streak in the 41st minute on a brilliant header from Charles De Keterlaere, who shielded Pau Cubarsí with his body and one-hopped a Castagne cross past a flat-footed Simón for his third goal in two games.
“The record and the milestones are there,” Spanish coach Luis de la Fuente said of his goalkeeper’s record streak. “It’s been decades since the last record was set. And perhaps somebody will break the clean-sheet record.
“But it’s going to be many, many years before that happens.”
Belgium opened the game up a bit when Garcia brought Romelu Lukaku, the country’s all-time leading scorer, on at the hour mark. But Courtois was called to make two saves in the next three minutes and came up lame after the second.
Shorty after he came off, De la Fuente summoned Merino over.
“He didn’t say much to me,” Merino said. “He told me I was coming in as the No. 10. And then, as the game was coming to an end, he told me I was incredible.
“Those are the only two things he said to me.”
The first shot Lammens faced came moments later, when Cubarsí put a one-hop shot on goal from distance. The keeper dove to his right to stop it with both hands, but the ball skipped just before it reached he and Lammens had trouble with the rebound, pushing it toward the edge of the six-yard box for Merino, who tapped it in.
“Unfortunately, to beat a team of this caliber, you need luck on your side,” Garcia, the Belgian coach, said. And the stars didn’t align for us.”
So while Belgium goes home, Spain goes to Texas for Tuesday’s semifinal with France, the only team in the world ranked ahead of it.
“Ever since the World Cup started, everyone has been waiting for this match,” Spanish wunderkind Lamine Yamal said. “I’ve been really looking forward to it. To me, they’re the two best teams in the World Cup.
“If anyone can take on France with confidence, it’s us.”
Especially if Merino keeps dreaming.
Sports editor Iliana Limón Romero contributed to this story.
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Oba Femi and Brock Lesnar’s feud will come to a head at SummerSlam in August, and the showdown has the potential to be WWE’s match of the year.
Femi beat Lesnar at WrestleMania 42 and led to “The Beast Incarnate” deciding to retire – at least for a moment – at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. Lesnar made a dramatic return a few weeks later, challenging and beating Femi at Clash in Italy.
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Oba Femi looks on during Monday Night RAW at Allstate Arena on July 6, 2026, in Chicago, Illinois. (Melina Pizano/WWE via Getty Images)
At SummerSlam, Femi and Lesnar will do battle inside a Hell in a Cell.
WWE Hall of Famer John Bradshaw Layfield called the next meeting between Femi and Lesnar a “generational matchup.”
“I’ve never seen anything like Oba – well, I have. I’ve seen Brock,” he told Fox News Digital. “It’s very much the carbon copy of Brock coming in. Brock coming in was like, oh my God, who is this guy? The guy can even talk, and he’s gonna be one of the biggest stars in wrestling. Not only could he talk, he’s a really smart guy. Brock became one of the biggest draws in professional wrestling. He came one of the biggest draws in UFC. It’s an unbelievable story, and now you got somebody who can rival that character.
Brock Lesnar in action against Oba Femi during “Monday Night Raw” at TD Garden on March 23, 2026, in Boston, Massachusetts. (Michael Owens/WWE via Getty Images)
“This Oba Femi comes out with the silly little walk he does. Everyone kinda does it, it’s like The Bushwackers. But the whole arena does it. I was in Vegas and I didn’t want to go to the matches and deal with the traffic and deal with the backstage area, and so I kinda just watched it in a sports bar. I stood in the back where nobody could recognize me, and as soon as Oba came out, the entire sports bar was sitting there doing that Oba Femi dance. The guy is just unbelievably over.
“I really think that somewhere in the NFL this year, you’re going to see an entire NFL arena doing this dance. You’re gonna have somebody like Saquon Barkley or ‘King’ (Derrick Henry) or some of these guys do this dance, and it’s infectious. Once one of them does, one of these great running backs or wide receivers, or somebody scores a touchdown, that’s when I think you’re gonna see entire arenas doing it. I just think Oba Femi is lightning in a bottle and Brock has always been that way. This is, to me, a generational matchup.”
Brock Lesnar and Oba Femi face off during WrestleMania 42: Night 2 at Allegiant Stadium on April 19, 2026, in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Georgiana Dallas/WWE via Getty Images)
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SummerSlam will take place on Aug. 1 and 2 at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.
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