As perhaps the greatest distance swimmer to ever hit the pool, Katie Ledecky’s Paris Olympics schedule is understandably packed with long events. But those events add up, leading her to compete for a ridiculous number of meters over the course of about a week at the 2024 Games.
The 27-year-old titan is now a four-time Olympian and looking to add to her Olympic medal count with seven golds and three silvers. But she literally has a long way to go to get there and could end up racing a total of 5,600 or 5,800 meters.
At the Paris Olympics, Ledecky is scheduled to compete in the 400-meter freestyle, the 800-meter freestyle, the 1,500-meter freestyle and the 4×200-meter freestyle relay.
“I care a lot about the 800 and the 1500, and then the 400 is a great race,” Ledecky said at U.S. Olympic trials in June. “I want to be right in there, and same with that relay. I know how to train for all those events. Everything we do has a purpose. Every training set we do has a purpose. So I feel very confident in my training and my training group and my coaches that I’ll be ready for the 200 through the 1500 in Paris.”
She qualified for the 2024 Games in the 200-meter race with a win at U.S. Olympic trials in June, but after finishing fifth at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics — she won gold in 2016 in Rio — she’s opting to skip the individual 200 and just swim the relay (and presumably only the relay final, not the heats).
Luckily for Ledecky and distance swimmers everywhere, the longer events only have heats and finals, whereas most pool events have heats, semifinals and finals. So at most, she only has to swim her events twice.
Assuming Ledecky swims all her races and qualifies for the finals — definitely a safe bet there, barring unexpected scratches — she could end up racing 5,600 meters if she only does the 4×200 relay final. If she swims in the relay heats, she could race 5,800 meters.
To put that in perspective, that’s about 3.6 miles’ worth of racing — not including warming up and down — and more than half of what the marathon swimmers will do in the open water 10k.
With 19 days until the #ParisOlympics, we're throwing it back to #SwimTrials24 where Katie Ledecky officially claimed the 19 fastest times in the HISTORY of the women's 1500m. pic.twitter.com/ySr9f24NHK
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) July 7, 2024
Ledecky is a three-time reigning Olympic champion in the 800 free, the only event she swam in her 2012 Olympic debut in London. When the 1,500 was finally added to the women’s Olympic schedule for Tokyo in 2021, Ledecky won the first gold and is definitely expected to repeat.
In the 400 free, she won gold in Rio and silver behind Australian rival Ariarne Titmus in Tokyo.
Here’s a look at Ledecky’s Paris Olympics schedule, assuming she swims all the events she entered and makes the final. (All times are approximate.)
Saturday, July 27
Women’s 400 free heats — 5 a.m. ET
Women’s 400 free final — 12:55 p.m. ET
Tuesday, July 30
Women’s 1,500 free heats — 5 a.m. ET
Wednesday, July 31
Women’s 1,500 free final – 3:04 p.m. ET
Thursday, August 1
Women’s 4×200 free relay heats — 5 a.m. ET
Women’s 4×200 free relay final — 3:48 p.m. ET
Friday, August 2
Women’s 800 free heats — 5 a.m. ET
Saturday, August 3
Women’s 800 free final — 3:09 p.m. ET
