One of the worlds best swimmers, 17-year-old Mighty Girl Katie Ledecky, set another world record this week at the Phillips 66 National Championships in the 400-meter freestyle. This victory makes Katie the first woman in nearly twenty years ago to simultaneously hold the world records in the 400, 800 and 1,500-meter freestyle events. If Katies name sounds familiar, it’s because she was a star performer at the 2012 Olympics in London. She was the youngest member of the US delegation, and her explosive win in the 800-meter freestyle was a dramatic beginning to her Olympic career! The rising senior from the Washington, DC suburbs, who has already committed to swim for Stanford in 2015, is also a favorite to win several events at the 2016 Summer Games. Despite the increasing national and international attention, however, Katie is known for down to earth manner. Last month, she delighted her former local swim team, the Palisades Porpoises, by showing up at one of their swim meets. Not only did she cheerfully perform the Palisades chant along with the current team members, she hopped in the water to swim four of the races, and then stayed to take pictures and sign autographs. Her fellow swimmers, and their friends and family, were thrilled: “It’s just amazing these girls get to swim next to her,” one woman said. As for her new world record, Katie said, “The best part about my race was my tempo... I wasn’t really worried about the time. I just wanted to get into a good race and swim the best race I could.” To introduce your children to more female trailblazers in sports - both in real-life and fiction - visit our Sports & Games section at amightygirl/books/general-interest/sports-games There is also a swimmer included in the Go! Go! Sports Girl doll line -- Suzi, Swimmer Girl -- recommended for ages 3 to 12 at amightygirl/suzi-swimmer-girl And, if your Mighty Girl is an athlete, you can find girl-empowering t-shirts that show off her love of sports in our Sports & Hobbies clothing section at amightygirl/clothing?clothing_themes=145
Posted on: Thu, 14 Aug 2014 18:38:40 +0000
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