Katie Ledecky: Women Had To Wait 50 Years To Swim the 1500 Freestyle on that Stage
Excerpt from Katie Ledecky's memoir: Just Add Water (2024)
[Scroll down for the English]
KISWAHILI
“Wakati Tokyo [2020—iliyofanyika mnamo 2021 kwa sababu ya COVID] iliongeza 1500 [mbio wa mita ya mtindo wa free, pia inajulikana kama “1500 free”] ya wanawake kwenye Olimpiki, nilikuwa mshindi wa kwanza kufaidika na ongezo hilo.
“Kwa shindano zima, haikuwa mbali na akili yangu kwamba kulikuwa na waogeleaji wasiohesabika wa kike ambao hawakupata nafasi ya kuogelea umbali huo kwenye Michezo [ya Olympiki]. Wanawake ambao walikuwa waogeleaji wa ajabu, ambao wangeweza kuponda umbali huo kwa urahisi, lakini hawaokuwa wamepewa fursa ya kuonyeshayo kwenye hatua kubwa zaidi, ya kuvutia zaidi, duniani. Miaka hamsini ya wanawake ambao hawakuweza kufurahia nafasi niliyokuwa nayo.”[*]
- Katie Ledecky, muogeleaji wa Marekani ambaye ameshinda medali 14 za Olimpiki na medali 26 za Ubingwa wa Dunia; alianza kuogelea akiwa na umri wa miaka 6 pamoja na kaka yake mkubwa.
* Kwa mara ya kwanza katika historia ya Olimpiki, matukio ya kuogelea kwa wanaume na wanawake kulifanana kwa idadi, umbali, na nidhamu katika Olimpiki ya Tokyo 2020.
ENGLISH TRANSLATION
"When Tokyo [2020—held in 2021 due to COVID] added the women’s 1500 free to the Olympics, I was the first winner to benefit from that addition.
“For the whole meet, it was never far from my mind that there were countless female swimmers who didn’t get the chance to swim that distance at the Games. Women who were phenomenal swimmers, who could easily crush that distance, but who hadn’t been given the opportunity to show it on the biggest, baddest world stage. Fifty years of women who couldn’t enjoy the opportunity that I had.”[*]
- Katie Ledecky, American swimmer who has won 14 Olympic medals and 26 World Championship medals; she started swimming at the age of 6 alongside her older brother.
* For the first time in Olympic history, men’s and women’s swimming events were identical in number, distance, and discipline at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Asante na tutaonana tena (Thank you and may we see each other again),
Mmerikani
Chanzo (source): Katie Ledecky. Just Add Water: My Swimming Life. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2024, page 228. Kindle Edition. Ledecky’s website is here.