1500 Freeestyle Women - The Most Mentally Tough Swimmer

It is very rare to see Katie Ledecky get emotional like this on camera. In fact I've only seen her get emotional in two races. One was her first Olympic gold in 2012 and the second was after the 1500 in Tokyo 2021 Olympics. I was very surprised when she told the reason why she got emotional but after understanding the context it made sense. In a sport where physical traits are very important, Ledecky is not the tallest swimmer like Dana Vollmer or Missy Franklin were, nor does she have a disproportionate wingspan like Phelps does, nor does she have the biggest feet and hands like Ian Thorpe does. She went to the US Olympic Center and they did an elite athlete health profile where they did a lot of tests and measurements. The third sentence of the 60-page report said Overall the findings are remarkably unremarkable. If she doesn't have an extraordinary physical talent then her technique must be the best in the world right? How else would she win more individual world titles than Michael Phelps? Well it doesn't look like her freestyle stroke is perfect either. She has a gallop freestyle and she always breathes to one side and her torso goes up and down slightly. Although it is a very popular style of freestyle among male swimmers it is not necessarily considered the best especially after Pan broke Popovich's record. Some people argue that the two-beat kick is not ideal for maximum speed even in distance events. I like it especially for some beginners or triathletes but I don't think it is necessarily the best technique for everyone. So if she doesn't have the best physical abilities or the undisputed best swimming technique how has she broken world records 14 times in individual events? Now she does have physical talent and a very good stroke but there's something else that matters more. The only other explanation is that she is the most mentally tough swimmer. She says that there are no secrets just do the hard work and she's not saying that about the race. Although swimming at that speed for that long the race is very hard work and probably incredibly painful but the real hard work is every day during training. It is very hard to imagine the physical and mental pain she endures during training all seemingly with a great attitude. In fact I found some of Ledecky's workouts from before she was an Olympic champion. If you are a swimmer I dare you to try to complete even one of these. I put them down in the comments. I tried and although I'm not in the best swimming shape of my life I couldn't even finish the warm up of this past 14 year old Katie Ledecky's workout. I can't even imagine what she's doing now. Before 2021 nobody had ever beaten Ledecky in an individual race at the Olympics but her formidable opponent Ariane Titmuss managed to do so in the 400 freestyle at the beginning of the Tokyo Olympic Games. For the first time in five years Katie Ledecky felt the pressure of the world again and her infallible strategy of getting the lead and keeping the lead didn't work. She had been undefeated at the Olympics since she was 15 years old and finally she had lost the race for the first time. Her winning strategy didn't work and her main competitive advantage, her mental toughness had been put to the test and ultimately defeated. So when she won gold in the 1500 she got emotional and she gave an interview afterwards where she explained why she got emotional. The ability to put a smile on someone else's face with a gold medal is what matters the most to her and she wanted that power again. We've talked about many great swimmers in our last videos. Interestingly in my opinion the best role model swimmers have both studied psychology as their major. They both have what seems to be a perfect balance between competitive spirit and sportsmanship. Katie Ledecky is only 27 years old. She has the 17 best times in history of the 1500 and the 16 best times in the 800 freestyle. The only other event where this happens is Sara Sjostrom's 50 butterfly where she owns the 22 best times. But sadly this isn't even an Olympic event. If Ledecky wins four more medals like she is expected to, she will become the female swimmer with the most Olympic medals in history, ahead of Jenny Thompson, Dara Torres and Nathalie Coughlin, giving her the undisputed title of the greatest female swimmer of all time. And I doubt that she will retire after that because the Olympic Games will be hosted by her home country in LA 2028. If you want to know why Ledecky's favorite recovery drink is chocolate milk, it is because it has 3 to 1 carbohydrate to protein ratio. I learned that recently because we bought the rights to a swimming nutrition masterclass. It's only in Spanish. Do you think we should translate it to English? Let us know in the comments. If you want to learn to swim faster you need to do the hard work. But if you don't have one of the best coaches in the world, or any coach, doing the smart work is also equally important. That's why I made this video here. See you there! Swim fast!