More than a decade after her first Olympic gold, Katie Ledecky is still swimming fast

Katie Ledecky will admit that a few things have changed during her long career at the top of swimming.

Like those nagging aches and pains.

She smiles as she thinks back to her time as a teenager, when she was just starting to make her mark on the international swimming scene and felt like her body was unbreakable.

When one of her older teammates was whining “about a knot in his back,” Ledecky looked at him in surprise.

“What’s a Knot?” asked Ledecky at the time.

No longer.

“All these years later, I kind of know what that means,” she said with a smile.

Not that anyone else can tell.

At 26 years old, Ledecky has already sealed her legacy as one of the greatest freestyle swimmers the sport has ever seen, but she shows no signs of slowing down.

In fact, she seems to be getting better.

Ledecky kicked off Tuesday night’s U.S. national championships with a staggering performance in the 800-meter freestyle, setting her fastest time since setting the world record at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016.

As she rode to the finish line, the rest of the field had just done their final somersaults on the other side of the pool.

Retired Olympic star Cullen Jones watched a monitor just off the deck of the IU Natatorium and marveled at Ledecky’s dominance.

After all these years, Ledecky still has the ability to amaze even the sport’s most seasoned observers, which is perhaps her greatest achievement of all.

“There’s no one else in the picture!” exclaimed Jones.

‘Swimming her own race’

For young swimmers on their way up, the chance to compete alongside Ledecky is thrilling – even if she leaves them behind in her wake.

Seventeen-year-old Jillian Cox doesn’t even remember Ledecky’s breakthrough at the 2012 London Olympics.

But the youngster was giddy after finishing second to Ledecky in the 800 free — albeit more than 13 seconds behind.

Ledecky returned to the pool on Wednesday morning and set the fastest preliminary time in the 200 free.

Ho hum, just another day at the pool.

Ledecky’s career has been amazingly consistent, but she seems rejuvenated by moving to Florida after the Tokyo Olympics to work with a star-studded training group led by coach Anthony Nesty.

Ledecky practiced every day with gold medalists like Caeleb Dressel and Bobby Finke and was urged by Nesty to become more personally invested in all aspects of her routine.

“I wish she would talk more,” Nesty said. “Not just to the other athletes, but also being vocal in practice, being vocal about where she is and how she can improve in certain areas. I got the sense that she was always letting her coaches coach a little bit and not saying much. But at her age she should give us information because the information will help us make a good plan for her.”

Ledecky set a pair of short course world records in 2022, earning her the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year award for a second time. Her time Tuesday night in the 800 free was the third-fastest of her career—and earned her the 30 fastest times ever in that grueling event.

“She kind of came out of her shell, which is great to see,” Nesty said.

Still, it took some adjusting.

Expect fight with McIntosh

Last week, Nesty texted Ledecky a few possible workout plans for the day, wanting her to decide which one she preferred.

“I thought I did both,” Ledecky said with a grin. “He was like ‘Oh, Katie, pick one.’ So I had to pick one. We are partners in this process. He emphasizes that. I enjoy it all.”

While much good-natured nonsense is spoken in Nesty’s group, Ledecky is essentially immune to the ribbing. Her performance is so stunning that there is no fodder for her teammates to seize upon.

Ledecky heads to the World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, next month to extend her record tally of medals from that event, which already totals 19 gold medals and three silver medals.

If, as expected, Ledecky wins the 800 free again, she will become the first ever swimmer to win the same race on six consecutive worlds. Oh, and just for the record, she’ll join Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Natalie Coughlin, Elizabeth Beisel, and Nathan Adrian as the only American swimmers to compete in half a dozen championships.

Of course, all eyes are on next summer, when Ledecky will attempt to compete in her fourth Olympics, most likely with another full schedule featuring four individual freestyle races – ranging from 200 to 1,500 meters – and at least one relay.

The 400 free figures will be one of the most anticipated events of the entire Paris Games: Ledecky, the 2016 gold medalist, took on reigning Olympic champion Ariarne Titmus – Australia’s “Terminator” – and rising star Summer McIntosh from Canada , which broke Titmus’ world record in March.

LOOK | McIntosh smashes world record 400 meters:

Ledecky doesn’t look that far ahead.

Not yet anyway.

“You just take it a year,” she said. “You know next year is the Olympic year, but you have goals this year that you focus on first.”

One of the benefits of a long career is that you can inspire others to follow your path. Ledecky knows what it was like for her to attend her first National Championships at age 6 and get Phelps’ autograph.

“I saw him walking to the car with his earbuds in,” Ledecky recalled, before catching herself. ‘Probably no earplugs. It was a cord, a long cord attached to a CD player, something like that.’

Now she’s the one the kids look up to.

“It’s incredible,” Cox said. “I love watching her — even if I’m 20 seconds behind her.”