TOKYO — Katie Ledecky knew this was going to sound strange. Or “silly,” as she put it. She was sitting in front of a microphone after her first-ever individual Olympic loss. And she knew that many people who’d watched her cede an Olympic crown to Australia’s Ariarne Titmus would have expected something on the spectrum of disappointment and heartbreak.
But Katie Ledecky?
“It's very satisfying to swim a time like that,” she said.
She knew you’d be confused. But if only you could have been inside her brain these past few months as the Olympics approached and doubts swirled.