Katie Ledecky Moves Training Base From Stanford to University of Florida–
Inside the 24-year-old swimmer’s decision to relocate and join elite training partners and a new coach ahead of Paris 2024.
The following written content by Pat Forde
Katie Ledecky sat at a table overlooking the Stanford aquatic facilities last May, two months away from the Tokyo Olympics and five years into her time as a student and athlete at the school. She was talking about her progression from training as a teenager in Washington, D.C., through the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, then moving to the West Coast.
“I think each [Olympic] cycle feels different,” she said then. “Different circumstances, different approach. I kind of like it that way, though. You don’t want to go eight or nine years with everything the same.”
Hearing that, it wasn’t hard to do the math and suspect that the greatest women’s swimmer in history would be on the move after Tokyo. The Paris Olympics are in ’24, and if Ledecky stayed in Palo Alto through then she would have been doing exactly what she said she didn’t want to do. As much as she loved the dual academic and athletic challenge of Stanford, you could see the expiration date looming on her time there.
So the news Wednesday that she is moving her training base did not come as a shock. However, the new destination initially registered as a surprise; the assumption was that she would go back home to Nation’s Capital Swim Club and rejoin Bruce Gemmell, who coached her through her four-gold-medal tour de force in Rio. But on further examination, relocating to the University of Florida makes perfect sense.
(Florida’s announcement of Ledecky’s arrival included the news that she will have the title of volunteer assistant coach. How much coaching she does remains to be seen, but it is something that can only help the Gators in recruiting.)
Ledecky needed a change, and Florida provides not only a new atmosphere but the ultimate training partners for a freestyler with her relentless competitive drive. Namely, Florida has the world’s new No. 1 male distance swimmer in Bobby Finke, who stunned everyone in Tokyo by winning both the 1,500- and 800-meter freestyles. And Florida also has Kieran Smith, the bronze medalist in the 400-meter free and the U.S.’s best time in the 200. Read more from Sports Illustrated.
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