Katie Ledecky races the 1,500-meter freestyle as if she’s being chased by a frenzy of sharks, an armada of gun-toting pirates and a squadron of flesh-eating zombies, all at once. When she touches the wall at the end of her 30th and final lap, she often has, if not an indefinite amount of time, then an embarrassingly copious quantity of it, able to do as she pleases before the next swimmer finishes.
On Wednesday, when Ledecky won gold in Paris, predictably so, Ledecky could have sent off a few text messages or recited the first half of “The Road Not Taken” or completed the Wordle.