📍Bethesda, Maryland, USA
1997 – 2015“Katie Ledecky was born in Washington, DC, in March 1997 and grew up in Bethesda, a leafy suburb in Montgomery County, Maryland, just over the border from the capital. Her father, David, is a lawyer, and her mother, Mary Gen, swam at the University of New Mexico; Katie grew up with her older brother, Michael, in a close, Catholic family where faith, education and sport mattered. She has said she loves Bethesda, its parks, pools and community. When she was six, the family joined the Palisades swim club, not out of grand ambition but so the children could have fun in the water, and she followed her brother into the pool, playing games like sharks and minnows. She was soon racing, and showed an unusual determination, setting herself written goals. She went to Little Flower School and then to Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart, a Catholic girls' school in Bethesda, and trained with the Nation's Capital Swim Club, often at dawn before school. In 2012, at fifteen and the youngest member of the US swimming team, she won the 800 metres freestyle at the London Olympics. She went on to win nine Olympic gold medals by 2024 and dozens of world titles, becoming one of the greatest distance swimmers in history, and she studied at Stanford. In her 2024 memoir, Just Add Water, she wrote about her Bethesda childhood and the family who made swimming a joy.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today