Katie Ledecky Is Not Retiring After Tokyo, Promises to Return for 2024

• Katie Ledecky gained one other gold medal, this time within the girls’s 800-meter freestyle.
• After the race, Ledecky laughed when NBC’s Michele Tafoya requested if she was contemplating retirement.
• “Oh that was not my final swim,” Ledecky mentioned. “I am at the least going to ’24, perhaps ’28.”
• Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Cease me in the event you’ve heard this one earlier than: Katie Ledecky has gained gold.

This time, the American celebrity swimmer took gold within the girls’s 800-meter freestyle, an occasion she has dominated for nearly a decade. It was her third straight gold medal on the occasion, having first gained at London 2012.

—#TokyoOlympics (@NBCOlympics) July 31, 2021

In case you have a look at the record of the quickest instances ever recorded within the race, Ledecky now owns the top 24. 

Between her wins in London and Tokyo, Ledecky had additionally taken gold within the girls’s 800m freestyle at each world championship.

After the race, NBC’s Michele Tafoya teed up Ledecky for a giant second: her potential retirement.

“I do know you are in ache, and I do know you are exhausted, and I do know you are glad,” Tafoya mentioned. “How will you determine if this was the final swim for Katie Ledecky? What are we seeing right here right this moment?”

Ledecky laughed on the query.

“Oh, that was not my final swim,” Ledecky mentioned by means of a smile. “I am at the least going to ’24, perhaps ’28. We’ll see. I simply knew it was going to be my final swim right here. You by no means take something with no consideration. You do not know if you are going to be again on the subsequent Olympics, so simply attempt to soak all of it in.”

—#TokyoOlympics (@NBCOlympics) July 31, 2021

Ledecky is just not going anyplace, and with the way in which she’s dominated the 800m, why would she?

This was the final race we’ll see Ledecky contest this 12 months in Tokyo, however as she mentioned loud and clear, she’ll be prepared for extra at Paris 2024.