Ledecky finally strikes gold in women’s 1500m free

So outlandish is it that a swimmer could battle for medals in both a sprint and a slog that the scheduling in the 200m and 1500m freestyle did Katie Ledecky no favours. There was little more than an hour between the two finals.

But few athletes have such deep stocks of stamina and determination, and given how the 200m worked out, perhaps the brevity of the gap even helped her. That way there was little time to ruminate on one of the most dissatisfying swims of her career. Walking to the warm-down pool after finishing fifth (fifth!) in the 200m, Ledecky bumped into her coach, Greg Meehan, as he descended from the stands. “We chatted a little bit,” the 24-year-old said. Get mad if you think the frustration can fuel you, he suggested. Or put it out of your mind: forget it happened and treat the 1500 like it’s your only race of the morning. Ledecky chose the more zen approach and flooded her mind with happy family memories, especially of her grandparents. “I just really love them all and it makes me really happy to think about them,” she said. Confidence and calmness renewed as the warm-down segued into a warm-up, a surprising start to Ledecky’s session ended as expected, with a commanding victory over a distance where she is routinely so far in front as to make viewers grateful for the invention of widescreen television.

When she touched the wall in Tokyo four seconds ahead of the runner-up, her fellow American, Erica Sullivan, Ledecky pointed with her index finger towards her star-spangled supporters in the stands. She smashed a hand into the water in what looked like a multi-layered celebration: personal joy, delight for her teammate and relief at releasing the tension and securing gold at the third attempt in Tokyo. At this point in the narrative, the journalistic cliche handbook calls for the assertion that she made amends for her earlier disappointment. But really, what does an athlete this gifted and successful, operating at this level, have to atone for? “I kind of laugh when I see things like ‘settles for silver’,” Ledecky said afterwards, referring to her second place in the 400m freestyle two days earlier behind Ariarne Titmus. This was a fifth individual Olympic gold (sixth overall) for the 24-year-old, the world record holder in the 400m, 800m and 1,500m freestyle. That medal tally equals the great Hungarian, Krisztina Egerszegi; only Michael Phelps (13) has won more solo events in the pool.