The 19-year-old swimmer Katie Ledecky has so far captured four gold medals and a silver at the Rio Games. She was impressive throughout, but her 800-meter performance stood out in particular when she set a world record at eight minutes, 4.79 seconds and beat the rest of the field by more than 11 seconds so it is no wonder Phelps wanted her autograph.
Olympic champion Michael Phelps and young swimmer Katie Ledecky have some history and things in common. Both swimmers combined to win 11 medals in which nine of them gold. The two also met each other back when Phelps was the up-and-coming star and Ledecky was just a kid with a dream, that meeting was one of the things that inspired Ledecky to compete in swimming and pursue the dream of Olympic gold. Now, Phelps is the one asking for Ledecky's autograph as to return the favor after her destruction in the pool.
On Monday, the 19-year-old Ledecky and 31-year-old Phelps recreated their 2006 photo on “The Today Show,” only this time Phelps was the wide-eyed, smiling kid receiving an autograph from an Olympic legend, Washington Post reported.
According to Olympic stats, Ledecky won gold in the 200-meter freestyle, 800-meter freestyle, 400-meter freestyle and 4x200-meter freestyle relay and silver in the women’s 4x100-meter freestyle relay. As for Phelps, he is arguably the greatest Olympian of all time. He added to his resume with five gold medals in Rio (4x200-meter freestyle relay, 200-meter butterfly, 4x100-meter medley relay, 4x100-meter freestyle relay and 200-meter individual medley) and a silver (100-meter butterfly).
Phelps has 23 Olympic gold medals and 28 overall medals in his storied career. Now he also has one autograph from the next marquee superstar in American swimming as he shifts to retirement. And as Phelps has declared these as his final Games, this photo becomes emblematic of a passing of the torch in U.S. swimming.
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