MAKING WAVES All eyes were on Katie Ledecky The US swimmer inched ahead stroke by stroke With each lap her lead grew As she neared the end of the 800-meter freestyle at the 2016 Olympics in Brazil Ledecky surged forward Her hands touched the wall She looked up at the clock Then she looked from side to side No other swimmers were close Ledecky’s time of 8 04 79 was a new world record for the event She had Katie Ledecky was already a highly decorated swimmer before the 2016 Olympics 5 CHAPTER 1 CHAPTER 1
beaten the silver medalist by an amazing 11 seconds Ledecky is one of the best swimmers in history The Maryland native has won individual Olympic and world titles in distances from 200 to 1,500 meters No woman in history has posted faster times in the 400 800 and 1,500-meter freestyle Thousands of female swimmers before her made Ledecky’s excellence possible Women were not always respected as athletes The men who controlled sports didn’t believe women should compete Pioneers in the sport such as Annette Kellerman cleared the way so Ledecky and her peers could become stars today Annette Kellerman helped change the way female swimmers dressed when they competed 6
