At 19, U.S. Olympic swimmer Katie Ledecky is already drawing comparisons to Michael Phelps, the most accomplished Olympian of all time.
After winning gold in the 800-meter freestyle as a 15-year-old in London’s 2012 games, Ledecky dominated this month in Rio — becoming the first woman swimmer since 1968 to win gold in the 200-, 400- and 800-meter freestyle events as part of a four-gold, one-silver medal Olympics. She currently holds three world records, and her five-career gold medals are just one short of Phelps’ six golds through his first two Olympics. Both swimmers were just 19 years old in their second times at the Olympics.
More significantly than her accomplishments in the pool, Ledecky, a Bethesda, Md., native, is a devout, actively practicing Catholic. She credits her faith to a strong Catholic formation, which included attending Little Flower Catholic School through eighth grade and then Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart for high school.
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