It was announced last Thursday that 2012 Olympic gold medalist and four-time world champion swimmer Katie Ledecky has verbally committed to attend Stanford instead of turning professional after graduating from high school.
“I am thrilled to announce that upon completion of my high school education, I am committed to pursue my education at Stanford and very much look forward to the opportunity to swim for the Stanford Cardinal women’s team in NCAA competition,” said Ledecky in a news release. “I am very excited about the educational opportunities that will be available to me at Stanford and to swim for its great NCAA program under the leadership of coach Greg Meehan and assistant coach Tracy Duchac.”
The 17-year-old Ledecky burst onto the international scene at the 2012 London Olympics, when she competed as the youngest athlete on the United States’ team as a 15-year-old and became the youngest ever winner of the 800-yard freestyle, in which she narrowly missed the world record by 0.5 seconds.
Since then, she has made a name for herself as one of the best distance swimmers on the planet and is the current world record holder in both the 800 free and 1,500 free. She also holds the American record in the 400 free. Those times came in a spectacular performance at the 2013 World Aquatics Championships, for which she earned Swimming World Magazine’s American Swimmer of the Year and World Swimmer of the Year awards.
At Stanford, she will join her Team USA teammate, current freshman Lia Neal, on the women’s swimming team.
Contact Do-Hyong Park at dpark027 ‘at’ stanford.edu.