What Is Katie Ledecky's Net Worth?
Katie Ledecky is an American competitive swimmer and Olympic gold medalist who has a net worth of $5 million. As of this writing, Katie Ledecky has won 10 Olympic medals (7 gold, 3 silver) and 22 World Aquatics Championships medals (19 gold, 3 silver), and she has set 16 world records, mostly in the long course 800-meter freestyle and 1500-meter freestyle. She also holds the records for the fastest times in the 500-yard, 1000-yard, and 1650-yard women's freestyle events. Katie represented the United States at the 2012 London Olympics, the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and "Swimming World" has named her Female World Swimmer of the Year five times. In 2016, 19-year-old Ledecky was the youngest person included on "Time" magazine's list of the world's 100 most influential people. Katie is considered by many to be the best female swimmer of all time.
Endorsement Money
When Katie was still an NCAA student athlete, she could not accept endorsement income or prize money from a professional competition. She actually turned down what could have been as much as $5 million in earnings ahead of the 2016 Olympics so she could remain a Stanford athlete.
However, in May 2018, she turned pro and signed her first major endorsement deal with swimwear company TYR. The deal paid Ledecky $7 million over six years.
Early Life
Katie Ledecky was born Kathleen Genevieve Ledecky on March 17, 1997, in Washington, D.C. She grew up in a Catholic household in Bethesda, Maryland, with mother Mary, father David, and older brother Michael. Katie's uncle is Jon Ledecky, co-owner of the New York Islanders hockey team. Mary was a member of the swim team when she attended the University of New Mexico, and Katie began swimming when she was 6 years old. Ledecky attended Little Flower School and Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart, and as a high school student, she set the US Open and American record in the 500-yard freestyle twice as well as the 200-yard freestyle national high school record. When she graduated from high school in 2015, Katie held the school record in nearly every swimming event. In 2012, she began training with coach Yuri Suguiyama at the Nation's Capital Swim Club, then she continued her training with coach Bruce Gemmell after Suguiyama left the swim club. Ledecky previously swam with the Palisades Swim Team. After high school, she majored in psychology and minored in political science at Stanford University, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in 2021.
Career
Katie's first senior national competition was the 2012 United States Olympic Trials, which took place in Omaha, Nebraska. She earned a spot on the Olympic team after she finished the 800-meter freestyle in 8:19.78. Besides winning the 800-meter freestyle, Ledecky also finished third in the 400-meter freestyle with a time of 4:05.00, which was the fastest time ever achieved by an American 15- to 16-year-old. She was the youngest American to compete at the 2012 Olympic Games, where she won a gold medal in the 800-meter freestyle with a time of 8:14.63. When Katie competed at the 2013 US National Championships, she won the 400-meter, 800-meter, and 1500-meter freestyles and was runner-up in the 200-meter freestyle. At the 2013 World Championships, she won gold medals in the 4×200-meter freestyle relay and the 400-meter, 800-meter, and 1500-meter freestyles, setting two world records. At the 2014 US National Championships, Ledecky won the 200-meter, 400-meter, and 800-meter freestyle events, and at that year's Pan Pacific Championships, she won gold medals in the 4×200-meter freestyle and the 200-meter, 400-meter, 800-meter, and 1500-meter freestyles, making her the first woman to earn four individual gold medals at the same Pan Pacific Championship.
At the 2015 World Aquatics Championships, Katie won gold medals in the 4×200-meter freestyle and the 200-meter, 400-meter, 800-meter, and 1500-meter freestyles. She won the 200-meter, 400-meter, and 800-meter freestyle events at the 2016 Olympic Trials, then at the Olympic Games, she took home the gold in those same events as well as the 4×200-meter freestyle relay. She also won a silver medal in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay. Ledecky set nine American records and a dozen NCAA records during the 2016–17 NCAA season, and at the 2017 Pac-12 Championships, she was named Swimmer of the Meet. After the season ended, Katie became the first freshman in more than 30 years to earn the Honda Cup, which is awarded to the country's top female college athlete. At the 2017 World Championships, she won gold medals in the 4×100-meter and 4×200-meter freestyles and the 400-meter, 800-meter, and 1500-meter freestyles, and she won a silver medal in the 200-meter freestyle. Ledecky set two American records and three NCAA records during the 2017–18 NCAA season, and in 2018, she was named Swimmer of the Meet at the Pac-12 Championships again. After helping Stanford win the 2018 NCAA Championships, Katie announced that she was going pro and signed with sports agent Dan Levy.
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Ledecky made her professional debut at the TYR Pro Swim Series in May 2018, where she beat her 1500-meter freestyle world record with a time of 15:20.48. At the 2018 Pan Pacific Championships, she won gold medals in the 400-meter, 800-meter, and 1500-meter freestyles, a silver medal in the 4×200-meter freestyle, and a bronze medal in the 200-meter freestyle. At the 2019 World Aquatics Championships, Katie withdrew from two events due to illness and won the 800-meter freestyle. At the end of the year, she was voted International Sportswoman of the Decade by "London Evening Standard" readers. At the 2020 TYR Pro Swim Series, Ledecky won the 200-meter, 400-meter, and 1500-meter freestyle events, and at the following year's competition, she won those three events as well as the 800-meter freestyle. The 2020 Olympic Games were postponed until 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and she won gold medals in the 800-meter and 1500-meter freestyles and silver medals in the 400-meter freestyle and 4 x 200-meter freestyle. At the 2022 World Championships, Katie won the gold in the 4 x 200-meter freestyle and the 400-meter, 800-meter, and 1500-meter freestyles.
Personal Life
Katie is a co-sponsor of the USS Enterprise aircraft carrier CVN-80 along with Olympic gymnast Simone Biles. In 2016, Ray Mabus, who was United States Secretary of the Navy at the time, chose the two athletes to sponsor the aircraft carrier, and Ledecky spoke at the keel laying ceremony for CVN-80 in August 2022. After the ceremony, she wrote on social media, "It's an honor to be a co-sponsor of #CVN80, the future USS Enterprise. Today we celebrated a momentous event in the Big E's construction with the ceremonial keel laying. Thank you to the shipbuilders working so hard and to the veterans, servicemen & servicewomen in attendance."
Awards and Honors
Katie has been nominated for four ESPY Awards, winning Best Athlete – Female and Best U.S. Female Olympian in 2022. She was also nominated in those categories in 2017. "Swimming World" named Ledecky Female World Swimmer of the Year in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2018 and American Swimmer of the Year in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2021, and 2022. Katie was ranked #1 on the "SwimSwam" Top 100 (Women's) in 2021 and 2022, and she won the USA Swimming Performance of the Year Award in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016. She received the Honda Sports Award for NCAA Division I Swimming and Diving for the 2016–17 season, and she won the Honda Cup that season as well. Ledecky has been named FINA Swimmer of the Year (2013), Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year (2017 and 2022), L'Équipe Champion of Champions (2014 and 2017), USOC SportsWoman of the Year (2012–13, 2016, and 2017), USA Swimming Athlete of the Year (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2018), Golden Goggle Female Athlete of the Year (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2021, and 2022), Golden Goggle Breakout Performer of the Year (2012), Women's Sports Foundation Athlete of the Year – Individual Sport (2017), and Academic All-America Team Member of the Year, Division I (2017–2018). She also won the award for FINA Best Swimming Performance of the Year in 2015 and 2016 and Golden Goggle Female Race of the Year in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2022.
World Records
In 2022, Ledecky set short course world records in the 800-meter freestyle (7:57.42) and 1500-meter freestyle (15:08.24). Between July 2013 and May 2018, she set more than a dozen long course world records. In 2013, 16-year-old Katie set records in the 1500-meter freestyle (15:36.53) and 800-meter freestyle (8:13.86), followed by the 1500-meter freestyle (15:34.23, then 15:28.36), 800-meter freestyle (8:11.00), and 400-meter freestyle (3:58.86, then 3:58.37) in 2014. In 2015, she set two records for the 1500-meter freestyle, coming in at 15:27.71 at the World Championships on August 3rd and beating her time the next day with 15:25.48. At the 2015 World Championships, Ledecky also set a record in the 800-meter freestyle (8:07.39). In 2016, Katie set a record for the 800-meter freestyle (8:06.68) at the Arena Pro Swim Series, then she broke it at the Summer Olympics with a time of 8:04.79. At the 2016 Summer Olympics, she also set a 400-meter freestyle record (3:56.46), and in 2018, she beat her 1500-meter freestyle record once again when she finished with a time of 15:20.48 at the TYR Pro Swim Series.
