Katie Ledecky says she’ll be back for 2024 Olympics

Katie Ledecky says she’ll be back for 2024 Olympics

Katie Ledecky isn’t going anywhere. 

Ledecky captured a gold medal in the women’s 800-meter freestyle on Saturday, bringing an end to her stint at the Tokyo Games. But in a post-race interview, the 24-year-old American swimmer assured that Saturday’s event wouldn’t be her final Olympics competition. 

“That was not my last swim,” Ledecky told NBC with a laugh. “I’m at least going to ’24, maybe ’28. We’ll see. You never take anything for granted. You don’t know if you’re gonna be back at the next Olympics, so you just try to soak it all in.” 

Ledecky burst onto the Olympics scene as a 15-year-old, taking home a gold medal in the 800-meter freestyle at the London Games in 2012. Since then, she has entrenched herself as the premier swimmer in the world, capturing four additional gold medals at Rio in 2016. 

In Tokyo, she earned a pair of gold medals and a pair of silver medals, also becoming the first swimmer to win the 800-meter freestyle at three consecutive Olympics.