“I know I can tough it out now" - When Katie Ledecky opened up on winning amid navigating serious illness

Katie Ledecky once opened up on winning a gold medal at the 2019 World Championships, held in Gwangju, South Korea, despite navigating a serious illness. Ahead of her appearance at the 2019 World Championships, Ledecky started experiencing unexpected headaches, irregular pulse, elevated heart rate, sleeplessness, and nausea.

The setback forced her to settle for a silver medal in the 400m freestyle and withdraw from the 800m and 1500m freestyle events. Despite the challenging chain of events, Ledecky was determined to execute a winning performance and messaged her then-coach Greg Meehan.

“I so, so badly want to have a good swim tomorrow,” she wrote. “Watching all those records tumble really fired me up.” (via seattletimes.com)

The legendary swimmer competed in her pet event, the 800m freestyle. Ledecky led the first half of the race until Italy's Simona Quadarella took charge in the latter half. However, Ledecky displayed her peerless skills and surged ahead of the Italian in the last 50m of the race. Following the race, she showed confidence in her capability while reflecting on the race.

“I know I can tough it out now if something like this comes up,” she said. “Kind of knew I had a little more speed than Simona and trusted that I could rely on that in the end. I just wanted to end on the best possible note."

Katie Ledecky won the gold medal in the event by clocking 8:13.58 minutes.

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Katie Ledecky takes pride in breaking the 800m world record at the 2025 TYR Pro Swim Series

Katie Ledecky during the 2025 TYR Pro Swim Series at Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. (Photo by Getty Images)

Katie Ledecky recently took pride in breaking the 800m world record at the 2025 TYR Pro Swim, held at the Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Center in Florida, recording an impressive time of 8:04.12 minutes.

"I can’t stop smiling, it's been like that all week though, so it’s not really new," Ledecky said. "It’s been so many years in the making to do it tonight. It’s been an incredible night. There is always a story to each world record that I set."

"The crowd was amazing tonight; I couldn’t have done it without that. I flipped at the 750, and it was loud in here, and I just told myself I’m not letting this opportunity go to waste and started sprinting.” (via people.com)

She earned the record-breaking feat by surpassing her previous world record of 8:04.79 minutes, which she posted at the 2016 Olympic Games.