Katie Ledecky Is Golden Again In Women’s 1,500 Free With Erica Sullivan Taking Silver

Ledecky, 24, said she knew she had to “turn the page” from thinking that the adrenaline from racing a great 200 would fuel her 1,500.

“When I dove into the warmdown,” Ledecky said, “I had to almost forget the 200 happened, and treat the 1500 like it was my only race.”

“She’s somebody who’s so good at putting those races behind her,” Michael Phelps said on NBC. “I think she’s going to go out and just obliterate this field.”

Everyone could see Ledecky’s game face when she whipped off her mask on the pool deck. She was swimming this race for all the great freestylers of the past who didn’t have the chance in previous Olympic Games. Coming in with a qualifying time more than 6 seconds faster than anyone else in the field, Ledecky led for 30 lengths of the pool - at one point with a margin of about 2 ½ body lengths.

Her time of 15:37.34 was well off her world record of 15:20.48 from 2018. She was also slower than her Olympic record of 15:35.35 in the preliminary.

Sullivan, 20, was next at 15:41.41, followed by Sarah Kohler of Germany 15:42.91. Known as a great back-half swimmer, Sullivan came on strong at the end of the race.

Did she see Ledecky’s feet when she was finishing? “Um, I saw her wake,” Sullivan said. “I’ve never actually seen Katie’s feet in a race unless I’m severely out too fast.

“She’s a legend and she will forever be a legend. The fact that I get to swim in the same generation as her is just so cool.”

But did she think she might catch her? “Do you know who that girl is?” Sullivan said. “Hell, no.”

And yet Sullivan was content that she had done what she set out to do. Sullivan’s mother is a Japanese citizen living in the United States on a green card, and her grandfather was an architect who worked on some of the Olympic venues. He died of cancer in 2018, the year after her father also died of cancer, and she has been open about her struggles with mental health. During the pandemic, Sullivan trained in a friend’s backyard pool and in Lake Mead, “which is disgusting” with “duck poop,” she said.

Winning the silver medal “means the world,” Sullivan said. “This is kind of self-centered, but I am the epitome of the American person. I’m multi-cultural. I’m queer. I’m a lot of minorities in that sense. That is what America is. It’s coming to a country to be able to establish what you want to do with your life.”

Team USA also added two other medals in Olympic swimming. 

University of Virginia teammates Alex Walsh and Kate Douglass won the silver and bronze medals in the women’s 200-meter individual medley, with Japan’s Yui Ohashi winning her second gold with a powerful final freestyle leg.

“For both of us, the pressure was pretty high,” Walsh said.

Ledecky has often found that pressure from within, racing versions of herself in the record books.

“Past performances, that puts pressure on myself,” Ledecky said. “I am always striving to be my best and be better than I’ve ever been. That’s not easy when your times are world records in some events. You can’t just keep dropping time every single swim.”

But that’s how she has approached every single race, even in February with nobody watching. Ledecky said she believes that “yeah, I can step up and throw down. I’m really tough on myself. It’s a real blessing and a curse that I have that attitude.”

Ledecky said she thinks people feel badly for her because she lost to Titmus in the 400. “I’m kind of at peace with it,” Ledecky said. “I laugh when I see things like ‘settles for silver’ because there are so many that have won silver or bronze and are really happy with that and are deserving of a lot of praise. Just because I’ve won golds all the time leading into that doesn’t mean the silver doesn’t mean something to me.”

She said she is aware of Simone Biles’ withdrawal from the women’s gymnastics team event to protect her mental health. 

As another famous face of Team USA who has been promoted as a gold medalist, Ledecky can empathize.

“I would never want to speak for Simone or say that I know what she’s feeling because none of us do,” she said, “but I understand it. We’re at the highest level; we have the most eyes on us of anyone in the world right now - everyone at the Olympics.

“Everyone around the world is watching, the cameras follow you around. I experience that on days like today…Every move you make is being watched and judged. As much as we say we try to ignore it, some of that is trying to keep that positive mindset and move forward.”

Ledecky said she hopes Biles continues to do what’s best for her and that the people around her support her. 

“We all have to watch out for each other and help each other through in times of need,” added Ledecky, who said she has gotten to know Biles over the years and they are in touch now and then.

“I hope she knows I really support her and hope she does well the rest of the week.”

Ledecky said that besides thinking about her family as she prepared for the 1,500, she also thought about the “power of the gold medal” and her experiences going to children’s hospitals or meeting wounded warriors and how “their faces light up when they see the gold medal.”

“That means more to me than anything, the ability to put a smile on someone’s face,” she said. “I just really wanted to get a gold medal to have that opportunity again.”

Tears came to Ledecky’s eyes. “I don’t want anyone to feel sorry for me or feel silver or anything beyond gold is a disappointment for me,” she said. “I’d much rather people be concerned about people truly struggling in life. It’s a real privilege to be at an Olympics, let alone an Olympics in a pandemic. So many people are going through a lot of hard things. Yeah, I’m lucky to be here.”

Want to follow Team USA athletes during the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020? Visit TeamUSA.org/Tokyo2020 to view the medal table, results and competition schedule.