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‘Efficiency is a huge piece’ In July 2021, at the end of the Tokyo Olympics, Ledecky found herself at a career crossroads. She had won four more medals — golds in the 800 and 1,500 frees, silvers in the 400 free and the 4x200 free relay — but her times in the three individual finals were a combined 10 seconds slower than five years earlier at the Rio de Janeiro Games, where, at 19, she had been at the height of her powers. And her runner-up finish in the 400 to Titmus, who caught and passed her over the final 50 meters, marked the first time she had been beaten in an individual Olympics final. Publicly, she has expressed no dissatisfaction with her Tokyo results, saying even last month, “I was happy with Tokyo, of course.” But to have been fully content would have required an acknowledgment that it was the best she could do, that she was incapable of being faster, that her age and her rivals were catching up to her and there was nothing she could do about it. That was not something Ledecky was willing to acknowledge. “She came home from Tokyo, knowing her like I do, partly unsatisfied,” said Bruce Gemmell, Ledecky’s coach from 2013 to 2016, a period that includes the Rio Olympics, who remains a friend and mentor, “and was like, ‘All right, what do I need to do, from a culture, environment [and] motivation standpoint, to be better?’ ” At a Team USA training camp in Hawaii just before the Tokyo Olympics, Ledecky had spent some time in a practice lane with Bobby Finke and Kieran Smith — teammates with the Gator Swim Club and two of the fastest male mid-distance/distance freestylers in the world — with their coach, Nesty, on the pool deck barking out encouragement. The experience transported her back to her preparation for the 2016 Olympics, when her training group at Nation’s Capital Swim Club in Bethesda, Md., consisted of mostly male swimmers — because no female swimmers could consistently push her in practice. Ledecky has always thrived on the adrenaline rush of competition (in the 400 free in Tokyo, Titmus pushed her to her fastest time in five years), and she took to racing against Finke and Smith in those practice sessions, building a quick rapport with the Gator duo and their coach. Racing Ledecky may have helped the men in Tokyo as well; Finke was an out-of-nowhere double gold medalist in the 800 and 1,500 freestyles, while Smith, seeded sixth entering the final of the 400 free, took bronze. The kids are more than all right as USA Swimming looks to the future After Tokyo — once Ledecky had made up her mind she would leave Stanford, her training base from 2016 to 2021, and move back to the East Coast to be closer to home — Gainesville was the only place she visited as a potential base for the next chapter of her career and Nesty the only coach she interviewed. “She did her research. She doesn’t make decisions lightly,” Nesty said. “The really good athletes are very observant. We were together five weeks [between training camp in Hawaii and the Tokyo Olympics], and I think she kind of liked the approach, how we handled practice.” According to Nesty, aside from targeting Ledecky’s athleticism, he told her one other thing soon after her move to Gainesville: “You’re not going to get run down ever again” — a reference to Titmus’s overtaking her in Tokyo. Together with USA Swimming’s high-performance staff, Nesty began an overhaul of Ledecky’s vaunted freestyle stroke — notable for its pronounced, syncopated “gallop” — which he believed had become “kind of choppy” over the preceding years. More than just an opinioned observation, the statement was borne out by the data. When Ledecky won gold in the 800 free in Rio in a world record 8:04.79, she took 657 strokes (or 328½ “stroke-cycles,” measured left hand to left hand) across those 16 lengths, according to USA Swimming data, with a stroke rate (the time required for each stroke-cycle) that varied between a low of 1.24 seconds and a high of 1.38, with an average of 1.34. In Tokyo, where she won gold in the same race but with a time that was nearly eight seconds slower, she took 676 strokes — more than one extra stroke per length of the pool — with a stroke-rate that got as low as 1.18 seconds and that averaged 1.30. In other words, she was turning over her stroke more frequently but moving less water and traveling a shorter distance with each one — the aquatic equivalent of spinning your wheels. “Sometimes, when we talk about how she looked not as good [in Tokyo] — sometimes, she would work herself into technical problems because she is so determined and dedicated to her craft,” said Matt Barbini, USA Swimming’s national team director of performance. “It’s weird that her technique sometimes ended up in a place we didn’t want it, just because she was trying to do everything right. She’s the hardest-working, most consistent athlete we’ve got.” After almost two full years in Gainesville, the difference is stark: Last month, during the national championships, where USA Swimming picked its team for the world championships, Ledecky won the 800 free in 8:07.07, her fastest time at that distance since the Rio Olympics nearly seven years earlier. And she did with a longer, more efficient stroke, completing those 16 lengths in just 644 strokes (13 fewer than in Rio and 32 fewer than in Tokyo) with a stroke-rate that averaged 1.36 seconds. According to some in attendance, the difference in her stroke, slower and more powerful, was visible to the naked eye. Efficiency is a huge piece of what we’re trying to do with her,” Barbini said, adding that Ledecky also has reined in her kick as a means of conserving energy. “Kicking is the biggest energy-suck in swimming. And she’s much lighter on her legs now at the longer distances.” Asked if he thought the reined-in kick might be at least partially a concession to Ledecky’s age, Barbini said, “I don’t know that Katie makes concessions to anything.” “Maybe ‘more controlled’ would be the way to say it,” Ledecky said when asked about the changes. “I think for several years, tempo had been my priority: trying to go faster. I was always trying to increase my tempo — whereas now my priority is swimming efficiently, maximizing my distance per stroke. The key is to try to go faster at that same stroke-count, trying to go faster without adding strokes.” On more days than not at their Gator Swim Club practices, Ledecky finds herself in the distance freestyle lane with Finke and Smith. And even when the men manage to hold her off on a given day, they know to keep their mouths shut. “You can’t trash-talk Katie,” Finke said. “It’s impossible.” Asked if she ever uses her imagination and substitutes Titmus and McIntosh for Finke and Smith during those head-to-head-to-head duels at practice, Ledecky predictably scoffed, saying, “At that point, I’m just racing Bobby and Kieran — which is enough.” But her coach had a different answer. “I’m pretty sure she is,” Nesty said. “She does that all the time.” <a href="https://www.totositenet.com/" target="_blank" title="토토사이트">토토사이트</a>