Katie Ledecky is celebrating Worldwide Ladies’s Day doing what she loves.
In an unique interview with ipromiseyoumedia in partnership with Athleta’s The Energy of She Collective, the nine-time gold medalist Olympian speaks about her plans for Worldwide Ladies’s Day and displays on her expertise on the 2024 Paris Olympics.
For Worldwide Ladies’s Day on Saturday, March 8, Ledecky, 27, will likely be (drumroll, please) swimming! “I will likely be spending my Worldwide Ladies’s Day coaching, which I feel could be very a lot consistent with the Energy of She,” she says.
“I am working onerous, nonetheless persevering with within the sport that I like a lot, and I will be surrounded by a few of my teammates who’re some actually robust girls. I’ve some feminine coaches on the Florida teaching workers that I will be round that day as effectively,” she says.
“I feel it is it is fairly becoming that I will be within the pool and within the gymnasium on Worldwide Ladies’s Day,” says Ledecky, who presently holds the Olympics document for many gold medals in swimming by a girl with 9 and is tied with gymnast Larisa Latynina for probably the most gold medals by a girl in any sport.
With the Energy of She Collective, Athleta is reaffirming its dedication to empowering girls in sports activities — and Ledecky says she is “actually excited to be concerned.”
“It is a group of nice feminine athletes that I am honored to be part of, and the Energy of She fund supplies some actually game-changing grants and financial assist to organizations that champion girls and ladies via motion,” Ledecky says. “It is all about girls, [it’s] women-forward and that is one thing that I really feel very enthusiastic about as an athlete.”
From now till March 10, followers should buy Athleta’s Energy of She sweatshirt for $49, obtainable in a number of colours and kinds. All proceeds from the gross sales will profit the Energy of She Fund, which helps empower feminine athletes in numerous methods, together with offering grants for little one care assist and inclusive wellness programming.
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Ladies’s Historical past Month comes simply over half a 12 months for the reason that Paris Olympics, the place Ledecky took dwelling two gold medals (for girls’s 1500m freestyle and ladies’s 800m freestyle), one silver (girls’s 4 x 200m freestyle relay) and one bronze (girls’s 400m freestyle).
Ledecky says that she and the swim group, “an excellent mixture of veterans and rookies,” spent weeks collectively between Olympic trials and the precise video games in Paris. “All of us tried to share our experiences that we have had previously with the youthful athletes and get them effectively ready,” she recalled.
She additionally remembered the empowering encounters within the Olympic Village, the place she “had so many nice little moments in line on the cafeteria or within the elevator with with a few of the different athletes, simply asking them once they’re competing wishing them good luck.”
“I used to be honored to be a flag bearer there, and that was a extremely nice alternative to fulfill much more of Staff USA,” she says. “And at that time, everybody’s executed competing, everybody’s actually blissful and in a celebratory temper, so it was quite a lot of enjoyable to only take pleasure in that second with my teammates.”
Ledecky, a 14-time Olympic medalist, has loads else to stay up for, together with talking as a graduation speaker at her alma mater, Stanford, this spring, and persevering with to coach for her subsequent massive occasions — in addition to hopefully group up with a few of the different unbelievable athletes within the Energy of She collective along with her.
“I like each alternative I get to see athletes from different sports activities and do some enjoyable issues with them as effectively,” she stated. “Within the Energy of She Collective, we’ve got some powerhouse athletes — clearly Simone Biles. I have been on a couple of Olympic groups along with her and love each alternative I get to do issues along with her, and clearly she’s such a drive. … Most just lately, Lexie Hull and Kate Martin joined the collective, two nice basketball gamers within the WNBA. Lexi really was at Stanford a few of the identical years I used to be. We did not actually get to know one another too effectively whereas at Stanford, however I am hoping, over these subsequent two years, we’ll be capable to get to do some issues collectively.”