Katie Ledecky will return to her fourth straight Olympics after lighting up the U.S. Olympic trials at Lucas Oil Stadium this week.

The Bethesda, Maryland, native has been the best American long-distance swimmer since she broke onto the scene at age 15, and her reign continues. Early in the week, she qualified as an American representative in the 400-meter freestyle, winning the event with a 3:58.35 time.

Last week, she eviscerated the field in her patented event, the 1500-meter freestyle. Ledecky finished with a 15:37.35 time, over 20 seconds faster than second place. She now owns the top 16 times in history for the event and looks to be at her peak with the Olympics just over a month away.

However, she still had more in the tank and began her pursuit of qualifying for the 800-meter freestyle. She won her preliminary heat and finished a half-lap better than second place.

“I never imagined I’d get to go to a fourth Olympic Games,” Ledecky stated, “I feel like I enjoy this more and more each year, and I think that’s a testament to the people around me my whole career.”

Ledecky ignited a Lucas Oil Stadium crowd of over 20,000 people as she swam in front of the most spectators in U.S. swimming history.

Along with her brilliance, Gretchen Walsh provided a moment of history for the fans. Walsh broke a world record in the women’s 100-meter butterfly with a 55.18 in the semifinals as she looks to dawn the red, white and blue for the first time at the Olympics.

The Americans are expected to do well in Paris next month, with Fan Duel having the United States set at -550 to win the most gold medals. The Olympics begin on July 26 and end on August 11. Olympic swimming starts on July 27 and finishes on August 9.

Australian swimmer Ariarne Titmus won gold in the women’s 200-meter freestyle, and she set a new Olympic record with a 1:53.50 time.

At first, it seemed like Titmus wouldn’t earn a medal at all as she was trailing the top three for the first 100 meters. However, Titmus is known for her lightning finishes, and the Australian swimmer dominated the final 50 meters to pull off the upset. Hong Kong’s Siobhan Bernadette Haughey held the lead until the final 20 meters. Haughey took silver while Canadian Penny Oleksiak earned bronze.

“I’m bloody exhausted,” Titmus said. “That was a tough one, I knew Siobhan really wanted this, I could tell by the way that she swam yesterday. So I knew it would be tough to beat her. Honestly, it’s not the time that I thought I could do this morning, but it’s the Olympics, and there’s a lot of other things going on, so it’s just about winning here. I’m very happy.”

Her victory gave the Australian women their third individual swimming gold. It was Titmus’ second gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics. More importantly, it was also another victory for her over rival Katie Ledecky. Ledecky was unable to keep up and finished fifth in the event. It was the first time in Ledecky’s career that she didn’t medal.

Before this event, Titmus defeated Ledecky in the 400-meter freestyle to end Ledecky’s streak.

U.S. swimmer Katie Ledecky claimed gold in the Olympic debut of the women’s 1500-meter freestyle race on Wednesday.

Ledecky’s victory came an hour after she was shut out of the medal podium in the 200-meter freestyle race. It was the first time in her Olympic career that she failed to make the medal podium. The Olympic swimmer failed to claim a gold medal in her first two events of the Olympics before winning the 1500-meter freestyle race. Many began to wonder if there had been a passing of the torch since Ledecky lost to Australian swimmer Ariarne Titmus in her first two races. The American quickly silenced her critics on this historical night.

Ledecky’s victory in the 1500-meter freestyle was history-making, as it was the first women’s 1500-meter freestyle in the Olympics even though men have been competing at the same distance for decades. She dominated the event, finishing at 15 minutes and 37 seconds.

Ledecky was a body length ahead of Jianjiahe Wang of China after 200 meters and five meters ahead at the 300-meter mark. The 24-year-old swimmer breathed every other stroke and stretched her lead on each turn. For the remainder of the race, she swam in cruise control. it was a long test that was both mentally and physically exhausting.

The swimmer’s victory was fitting because she is regarded as one of the greatest American swimmers of all time. Ledecky has now won six career gold medals.

Fellow teammate Erica Sullivan won silver and Sarah Kohler of Germany took bronze.

Australia’s Ariarne Titmus out-swam United States star Katie Ledecky in the 400-meter freestyle to win the gold medal. Titmus finished with the second-fastest time in history. 

Titmus’ coach, Dean Boxall, made major headlines alongside the swimmer due to his sideline antics. As Titmus overcame a body length gap behind Ledecky and took the lead late in the race, Boxall could not contain his excitement. He could be seen on his perch above the pool punching the air, ripping his mark off, kicking and thrusting the barrier.

A young girl volunteering appeared to attempt to calm Boxall, yet the coach was not phased. 

Boxall’s excitement turned to tears as Titmus collected her gold medal on the podium. “I could see Dean on the other side bawling his eyes out,” said Titmus to the Agence France-Presse. 

“I don’t feel the hype, it’s more you guys. I just try to race the best I can and ignore everything else,” added Titmus. “I honestly thought I’d be more nervous coming into this but Dean said to me, ‘Look, you know how to swim, this is just a big swimming race, you just have to do what you know how to do.'”

Boxall’s antics made headlines and were a major talking point on social media. A Morning Herald reporter, Vince Rugari, stated: “I’d never heard of him before but pretty confident he’ll now never have to buy himself a beer ever again. How good #Tokyo2020.”

United States Olympic swimmer Katie Ledecky has experienced numerous hardships during her training in preparation for the upcoming games in Tokyo. Still, she placed her struggles in context by comparing her struggles to those less fortunate than her, and used these difficulties as motivation to perform to the best of her ability:

With the Olympics quickly approaching, United States swimmer Katie Ledecky is largely focused on the competition during the games; what comes afterward is a matter of conjecture.

U.S. Olympic athlete Katie Ledecky is an incredibly well-accomplished swimmer, medaling six times during her career. One of the sources of her motivation to perform at an elite level has come from the motivating words of Kobe Bryant, which she recalled fondly at the Team USA Media Summit.

Olympic athlete Katie Ledecky talks about her excitement towards the upcoming Tokyo Olympics. The Olympics were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the swimmer mentioned that the event was canceled before reaching the 100-day mark.

Olympic swimmer Katie Ledecky threw out the ceremonial first pitch Wednesday night at Nationals Park in Washington’s game against the Baltimore Orioles.

Katie Ledecky Throws Out First Pitch At Nationals Park, As Washington Falls 10-8 To Orioles

The 19-year-old Team USA star, who won four gold medals and one silver at the Rio 2016 Games, took all five medals off and handed them to Bryce Harper before throwing the first pitch from just in front of the mound. As the reigning National League MVP gazed at the medals, Ledekcy, a Bethesda, Maryland native, tossed the baseball to Nationals reliever Shawn Kelley. 

“I’ve swum in front of 14,000 people,” Ledecky said of the pitch. “Once the ball leaves the hand, you can’t really control it.”

This was not the first time Ledecky– who was born in D.C– had thrown out the first pitch at Nationals Park. However, this time her throw came after a video tribute to the local Olympic star, which included a clip of her world record-smashing victory in the 800-meter freestyle.

The swimmer met several Nationals before the game, including Harper, whom she said is one of her favorites. Although they didn’t give her any tips on the first toss, which she said she practiced Tuesday, they were curious about her five medals.

“They all wanted to see how heavy they were and things like that,” Ledecky said. “They are pretty heavy. It was kind of a different feeling for me to have them be a fan of me when I’ve been a huge fan of theirs for a couple years.”

Ledecky will start at Stanford University in the fall and plans to take some time off before starting school. Furthermore, the young athlete’s mind already seems to be on the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

“It’ll probably be the longest break I’ll take in the next four years,” she said. “It’s just nice to be out of the water a little bit and get recharged for the next four years.”

The Orioles won the game 10-8, with Manny Machado and Matt Wieters leading the scoring for Baltimore. Both players drove in four runs in support of left-handed starter Wade Miley, who was acquired by the Orioles last month and earned his first victory with Baltimore with five-plus innings of two-run ball.

The win was Orioles’ third straight over the Nationals and came just hours after the team put ace Chris Tillman on the disabled list.

“Right now, this time of the year, it may be important for us because we’re thin … right now, and we need all of our healthy pitchers to do what they’re capable of doing,” Orioles manager Buck Showalter said. “There’s not much margin for error as we go forward here with 30-some games left.”

WASHINGTON, DC – AUGUST 24: Katie Ledecky hands her Olympic medals to Bryce Harper #34 before throwing out the opening pitch before the game between the Baltimore Orioles and the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park on August 24, 2016 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Greg Fiume/Getty Images)

Simone Biles is not the only impressive American Olympian named ‘Simone’ to have won gold thus far in Rio di Janeiro.

Simone Manuel became the first African-American woman to win a gold medal for the United States in an individual swimming event after she tied with Canada’s Penny Oleksiak in an Olympic-record time of 52.70 seconds in the women’s 100-meter freestyle final Thursday.

USA Swimmer Simone Manuel Makes History ,Ties For Olympic Gold In Women’s 100M Freestyle Final

The 20-year-old Houston native, who had previously taken silver in the women’s 4×100-meter freestyle relay, set a new Olympic record along with Oleksiak.

With arms raised and a wagging finger, Michael Phelps made sure to let everyone know on Tuesday night who was still No. 1.

Michael Phelps Wins Record 21st Gold In 200M Butterfly

Phelps bumped his Olympic record to 21 gold medals in Rio on Tuesday on a stellar night for USA Swimming.

While Phelps won the 200-meter butterfly and the US team took gold in the 4×200 meter freestyle relay, Katie Ledecky earned her second title of the 2016 Olympics.

Four years after losing his 200-meter Olympic butterfly title, Phelps beat his 24-year-old South African rival Chad le Clos for the gold.

The oldest individual gold medalist in Olympic swimming history at 31, Phelps celebrated the victory by hugging his three-month-old son Boomer after basking in the loud cheers and applause from the crowd.

The Towson, Maryland native quit the sport after the London 2012 Games and then returned two years afterwards. Now, it seems his comeback has made a resounding splash.

Le Clos won the gold in 2012, thus leaving Phelps with a shocking defeat after he had won the event in both 2004 and 2008.

The American finished in a time of 1 minute 53.73 second with Japan’s Masato Sakai claiming silver and Hungary’s Tamas Kenderesi earning bronze.

Le Clos, whose training for the Olympics has largely been overshadowed by the news that both his parents were diagnosed with cancer, just missed a medal to finish fourth.

Phelps returned to the pool for the men’s 4×200 meter freestyle relay to add another gold medal ahead of Great Britain and Japan in an exhilarating finale.

Phelps, along with Ryan Lochte, Conor Dwyer and Townley Haas– who swam the first three legs– celebrated after winning his 21st gold medal and 25th overall before taking time to rest.

Ledecky, who had already won the 400-meter freestyle, edged out Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom and Australia’s Emma McKeon on Tuesday.

The 19-year-old, who finished behind Sjostrom in her semifinal heat, finished in an incredible 1 minute 53.73 seconds.

Ledecky, who is also hoping to successfully defend the 800-meter title she won in London at the age of 15, has also already helped the US take silver in the 4×100 meter relay.

“That hurt pretty badly,” she told reporters after the race. “It’s the closest I’ve come to throwing up at the end of a race. I was just glad to get my hand on the wall first.

“It was a stressful race and I feel good now it’s over. I took it pretty fast and forced everyone and once I was ahead I was not going to let it out of my hands.”

1	United States	10	8	9	27
2	China	8	3	6	17
3	Japan	3	1	10	14
4	Russia	3	7	3	13
5	Australia	4	0	5	9
6	Italy	3	4	2	9
7	Hungary	4	1	1	6
8	South Korea	3	2	1	6
9	France	2	3	1	6
10	Great Britain	1	3	2	6
11	Canada	0	1	4	5

Michael Phelps won his 19th Olympic gold medal as a member of Team USA after capturing the 4×100 relay in Rio on Sunday.

France, Team USA’s traditional rival in the event, finished second, and Australia placed third. The gold was Phelps’ 23rd medal (19 golds, 2 silvers and 2 bronzes). His final time was 3:09.92.

The veteran 31-year-old swimmer–competing in his fifth Olympics — wasn’t added to the relay team until race day, and swam the second leg for the Americans, taking over from Caeleb Dressel in second place behind France and gaining the lead. His split time was 47.12, which his coach Bob Bowman said was one of his all-time fastest. He overtook his French counterpart Fabien Gilot after a turn that Bowman described as “probably the best turn that might have ever been done.”

The U.S.’s Ryan Held and Nathan Adrian also finished for the delegation. Adrian’s split was an even better 46.97.

Phelps retired following the London 2012 Games but decided to return, partly due to disappointment with how the American male swimmers performed in the 4×100 relay at the 2013 world championships, which they lost to France.

France and the United States split the last two Olympic gold medals, with Yannick Agnel of France battling Ryan Lochte in the anchor leg to win four years ago. Phelps was on both of those American teams.

Meanwhile, 19-year-old U.S. swimming star Katie Ledecky not only won the gold medal in the women’s 400-meter freestyle on Sunday, she shattered the world record she set two years ago.

The Bethesda, Maryland sensation won her first Olympic gold medal, finishing with an incredible time of 3:56.46 to win by nearly five seconds over Britain’s Jazz Carlin. U.S. teammate Leah Smith won the bronze. Ledecky ended the race with an emphatic fist-pump and a big smile.

“We set our goals for the week,” Ledecky said, “and to finally hit one of them feels really good. Everyone wants to swim their best at the Olympics. I was just trying to set a [personal] best time, and for me that just happens to be a world record.”

With the 12th long-course world record swim of her career, Ledecky finally beat her 2014 mark of 3:58.37. Ledecky clocked a 3:58.71 in the afternoon preliminary heats.

Though she paced the qualifying by more than four seconds, a “lackadaisical” — her word — final stroke may have cost her the record.

“That’s the easiest it’s felt going under four minutes,” Ledecky said after that swim. “So that bodes well for tonight.”

Ledecky swam strong from the beginning Sunday night. Her opening lap of 27.73 was more than a half-second faster than her afternoon split, and her first 100 was more than a full second faster. Halfway through the race, she was already two body-lengths ahead of the field. She swam her first 200 in 1:57.11, a time that would have given her fifth place in the 200 free at the U.S. Olympic trials.

“I’ve been training with her for the last month and watching her doing amazing things,” Smith said of Ledecky. “I knew this was coming. It was just a matter of when and how fast she was going to go.”

In the final 100 meters of the race, Ledecky kicked furious and used her arms with vigor to traverse that distance in 58.84 seconds. No other swimmer in the field was under a minute. Neither, for that matter, was the 17-year-old Ledecky in the world-record swim from 2014.

Of Ledecky’s three world records, the one in the 400 had stood the longest by far. She broke it twice within a span of two weeks in August 2014 — the second coming at the Pan Pacific Championships in Australia — but she had not improved it in the two years since despite 20 or more attempts at smashing it. In that same span, she has broken her records in the 800 and 1,500 (the latter of which is not contested for women in the Olympics) a total of five times — most recently six months and one year ago, respectively.

Her performance on Sunday, added to her 800 free gold in 2012, already makes her the sixth American woman to win individual swimming golds at two different Olympics. She joins Martha Norelius (1924 and 1928), Janet Evans (1988, 1992), Brooke Bennett (1996, 2000), Natalie Coughlin (2004, 2008) and Rebecca Soni (2008, 2012).

Ledecky still has the opportunity to win gold in the 200 free, 800 free and 4×200 free relay. If she wins them all, she would become only the third American woman, after Amy Van Dyken (1996) and Missy Franklin (2012), to win four golds in a single Olympics. Only Franklin has won four golds plus an additional medal (a bronze).

Next up for Ledecky: the 200 free, with heats Monday afternoon, semifinals Monday night and final Tuesday night.

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – AUGUST 07: Gold medalists Caeleb Dressell and Michael Phelps of the United States embrace during the medal ceremony for the Final of the Men’s 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay on Day 2 of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium on August 7, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Photo by Adam Pretty/Getty Images)

The ESPYs are always entertaining, and very often predictable, but this year the Best Female Athlete took me by surprise.  Serena Williams was not even included in the running for best athlete, how could this be when she was named Sportsperson of the Year by Sports Illustrated in December 2015 for having won three major titles and the oldest player to be ranked number one in women’s tennis during the Open Era. She is also known as one of the most powerful athletes of this generation. I’m confused.

Of the four nominees, Katie Ledecky, Simone Biles, Breanna Stewart and Elena Delle Donne, Della Donne was the one that could have been weeded out.

Ledecky is an Olympic gold medalist, nine time world champion and the current record-holder in the 400, 800 and 1500 meter freestyle, and holds the fastest ever times in 500, 1000 and 1650-yard freestyle.  She has broken eleven world records.

Biles is a three-time world all-around champion, and is the first woman to win three consecutive world all-around titles. She holds 10 gold medals at the World Championships which is the most golds won by a female gymnast in the history of the World Championships.

Delle Donne was the 2015 WNBA MVP averaging a league high 23.4 points per game and shot 95 percent from the free throw line.  She will be competing in Rio this summer with the women’s national basketball team.

Stewart did win nearly every basketball award possible this past year. ‘Stewie’ has won four national championships, one this past year, went as the first pick in the 2016 WNBA draft, Naismith player of the year award, Wade Trophy, John R. Wooden Award and made the women’s national team to represent in Rio. She finished her career as UConn’s all-time leading scorer with 2,676 career points and 414 career blocks.

Serena Williams at 34 years old is ranked No. 1 in women’s singles tennis. According to Forbes Williams was the highest paid female athlete in the past 12 months raking in $28.9 million in prize money and endorsements. Accolades are great, but Williams is the real deal.

Williams is second only to Steffi Graf in number of consecutive weeks to hold a No. 1 rank, and has tied Graf with Open Era Grand Slam titles.  If Williams would have won four Slams in a calendar year then perhaps she would have been nominated? She certainly beats out Delle Donne regardless.

We can’t underestimate politics in the selection process. Sometimes there is no rhyme or reason why someone is selected, we can only surmise. Williams has been the recipient of Best Female Athlete Award at the ESPYs’ in 2003 and 2013.  She has also won Best Female Tennis Player eight times. Maybe they figured they should share the wealth, but you need to give credit where it is due.

In Stewart’s acceptance she referred to the difference between men’s and women’s media coverage and fame in sports. “I’m trying to understand why we, as professional female athletes don’t receive anywhere near the fame,” she said.

Williams draws as big of a crowd as Roger Federer does.

In comparison to the other three Delle Donne hasn’t done anything ground-breaking this year and Williams deserved to have been nominated.

Breanna Stewart also took home Best College Female Athlete, but even in this category she was among some extremely talented athletes.

Raquel Rodriguez is a decorated soccer player from Penn State.  In 2015 she led her team to win the NCAA Championship, and just two of her most prestigious personal achievements were the Mac Hermann Trophy Winner and TopDrawerSoccer Player of the Year. She now plays for the Sky Blue FC in the National Women’s Soccer League.

Samantha Bricio is a volleyball stand out from USC, and the youngest player to play for the Mexican National team. She was Volleyball Magazine Player of the Year.

Taylor Cummings from the University of Maryland’s lacrosse team and won two of the last four NCAA championships. Sierra Romero playing both shortstop and second baseman for the Michigan Wolverines.  She is the only player in college softball history to score over 300 runs in her career.