INDIANAPOLIS — Just around the corner from where an orange pylon normally stands in the south end zone of the enormous Lucas Oil Stadium, Katie Ledecky was hanging from the wall of the 50-meter pool Saturday morning, waiting for her fellow competitors to finish the 400-meter freestyle. For a few minutes she was able to look around her and marvel at the big changes that are the basis for the 2024 U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials.
An NFL stadium has been transformed into the world’s largest swimming pool.
The quadrennial swim meet has grown to such size that it now requires an NFL stadium to host it, thanks to the star power of Ledecky and several of her teammates.
And Ledecky herself has transformed from teen sensation to legendary icon over her 12 memorable years on these stages.
On the first of nine days of qualifying to select the U.S. team for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris next month, Ledecky swam the 400 freestyle in a comfortable 3:59.99, nearly six and a half seconds faster than anyone else in that heat. She is seeded top for Saturday night’s final and will seek to qualify for her fourth Olympic Games.
Six months ago, on June 26, 2012, in Omaha, Ledecky dove into the pool for the Olympic Trials for the first time. It was also the 400m freestyle preliminaries. At 15 years old, she was the youngest swimmer in the event, nearly a year and a half younger. At the time, her name was listed as “Katherine” on the qualifying sheet, tournament program and television broadcast. As with the 2016 and 2021 trials, these trials took place in a converted basketball stadium with a capacity of about 13,000 people.
Ledecky, then a sophomore at Stone Ridge School in Bethesda, missed out on qualifying for the Olympics in the 400 but won the 800 freestyle five days later to book her spot at the London Olympics, where she won a stunning gold medal as the youngest competitor in the final (some four years younger than Ledecky), launching one of the most legendary Olympic careers of a generation.
On Saturday, in a converted stadium for the Indianapolis Colts that seats about 30,000 people, Ledecky took to the starting block as a seven-time Olympic gold medalist and, at 27, the oldest athlete in her pack, more than five years older than her opponent.
Her longevity, combined with sustained excellence, has her on the verge of making history in every respect this summer: Two more gold medals in Paris will see her pass fellow American Jenny Thompson as the most decorated female swimmer in Olympic history.
Because the U.S. qualifiers are the last on the world calendar, Americans competing there may have the advantage, or added pressure, of knowing what times their international rivals recorded in their home qualifiers.
For Ledecky, by the time she stepped off the starting line in the 400 freestyle on Saturday, she knew that Summer McIntosh of Canada had won the heats in 3:59.06 and Ariarne Titmus of Australia had run a stunner, the second-fastest time ever, 3:55.44.
Ledecky, McIntosh and Titmuss all held the 400 freestyle world record for the past 25 months, until Titmuss took it from Ledecky, McIntosh took it from Titmuss and then Titmuss reclaimed it with a 3:55.38 at the world championships last summer in Fukuoka, Japan, where Ledecky (3:58.73) finished a distant second and McIntosh (3:59.94) slipped to fourth.
A rematch of the head-to-head clash in Paris this summer is shaping up to be the race of the century, but all evidence points to Titmuss distancing himself from his rivals.
“I know that to have a shot at gold or even a chance to win a medal, I’m going to have to be really fast in that event,” Ledecky said of the 400 freestyle earlier this year.
Lucas Oil Stadium was less than half full for the morning heats on Saturday, but when Ledecky made a late charge in the 400-meter heat, the crowd roared and Ledecky returned the baton.
She slowed down in the second half of the race, wisely conserving her energy for the evening’s final, but still managed to finish the final 50 meters in a staggering 28.87 seconds. How fast is that? That’s faster than Ledecky’s final 50 meters to win gold in the 400m freestyle at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics (the world record at the time was 3 minutes 56.46 seconds). And it’s faster than Ledecky’s final 50 meters to win silver at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
That was the exact same time Titmuss recorded in the final 50 meters of his world record swim in Fukuoka last summer: 28.87.
Ledecky may have been sending a message in her final 50 meters Saturday, which essentially said, “Don’t give up on me.” Anthony Nesty, her coach at Gator Swim Club in Gainesville, Fla., is among those who think she still has a monster 400 in her tank.
“She’s very talented. I see that all the time in practice,” said Nesty, who will serve as the U.S. men’s head coach in Paris. “Personally, I think it’s time for her to jump a really good 400. She’s been good the last two years, but not at the level where she wants to compete. I think it’s time for her to jump the 400.”
