Freestyle star Ledecky still pushing boundaries

Katie Ledecky, the freestyle phenomenon who bagged her 14th world record in May, says she'll keep trying to push her boundaries as she looks toward the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

Ledecky, who won four gold medals at the 2016 Rio Olympics to take her tally to five, obliterated her own 1,500m freestyle world record at Indianapolis on May 16 -- her first event since announcing she was turning professional and giving up the amateur status that allowed her to compete for Stanford University.

In June she inked a sponsorship deal with TYR Sport Inc., the timing giving her plenty of time to adapt to the demands of a pro career before 2020 arrives.

Ledecky is entered in five events at the US national championships that start on Wednesday in Irvine, south of Los Angeles.

The meet is a qualifier for the Pan Pacific championships in Tokyo next month, with the two meets together serving as selectors for the 2019 world championships in South Korea.

"Make the Pan Pacs team," Ledecky said yesterday of her goals for the week.

"That's as much as I'm going to share.

"I want to be my best this summer at Pan Pacs, but if it's kind of split between these two meets and some of my best swims are at this meet and some are at Pan Pacs, I'll take that, too."
"It was the first time I broke that one. So that was a memorable one, not to say all of them aren't. But that was especially memorable."