Katie Ledecky: All four of my grandparents have inspired me throughout my life. I feel very lucky that I have had so many years with all of my grandparents. With my grandmothers, I’ve had more years than I did with my grandfathers. But all have very inspirational stories, and I felt like they were such an important part of my story, and that’s why I included them in the book, because I think they each have contributed values that I hold dearly in my life. They’ve all set such great examples for you know, hard work, dedication, building community, being involved in your community, serving your country, serving your family, serving your community. So, those are the things that I try to bring to my daily life. And whenever I do that, I think of my grandparents and I have strong connections with many of the people that they were friends with. And just through the sport of swimming, I feel like I have formed these new connections with them even though I only have one grandmother still alive. It’s been very special to share so many of these special moments in my life with my four grandparents.
I think there have been so many races at the Olympics or at World Championships that I’ve thought about my grandparents, even within the races. I swim the distance races, and so I do have a lot of time to think, and sometimes that’s something that is kind of a tool or a trick that I use, I think of my loved ones and for me, I feel like that just gives me such strength because my grandparents were, are, you know, they’re some of the strongest people that I know and I’m so close with. And so, just thinking of them, then I start thinking of my parents, I think of my aunts, my uncles, my cousins, all the people that I’ve had in my life supporting me, setting good examples, such strong people, strong individuals, and that really gives me strength and kind of lifts me up during my races, especially the hard ones.