TRENDING TRACK AND FIELD | SWIMMING | GYMNASTICS

Rachel Thompson

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Katie Ledecky headlines TYR Pro Swim Series this week

By Rachel ThompsonApr 8, 2019, 5:39 PM EDT
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The third leg of the TYR Pro Swim Series this week offers another opportunity for Katie Ledecky domination.

The five-time Olympic gold medalist is slated to swim on all four days of competition in Richmond, Virginia, starting with the 800m free on Wednesday. She will not swim the 1500 free on Saturday, an event in which she owns the world record and nine of the 10 fastest times ever recorded, but is currently expected to compete in all of the other freestyle events (including the 50 free, which she rarely swims).

Ledecky has had an eventful year – she announced her decision to turn pro in March 2018, forgoing her final two years of eligibility at Stanford. She then broke her own world record in the 1500 free by exactly five seconds in her first event as a pro swimmer at the TYR Pro Swim Series in Indianapolis last May. Ledecky, who still studies and trains at Stanford, competed earlier this season at the TYR Pro Swim Series in Knoxville, Tennessee, winning four events (400 IM, 200 free, 400 free and 1500 free).

The field in Richmond will include several other Olympic gold medalists, including Simone Manuel, Caeleb Dressel and Ryan Murphy. The field will also include 19-year-old Michael Andrew, a breakout star last season who won five events at the most recent TYR Pro Swim Series event in Des Moines. Swimmers continue to train for July’s World Championships in South Korea, so they aren’t likely to post their best times at this point in the season.

Coverage of the series will air live on Olympic Channel: Home of Team USA at 6 p.m. both Friday and Saturday, with encore presentations on NBCSN both days.

 

Morgan Hurd, Sam Mikulak to compete this weekend in Tokyo

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By Rachel ThompsonApr 4, 2019, 11:46 AM EDT
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2020 Olympic hopefuls Morgan Hurd and Sam Mikulak will get an early taste of Tokyo at this weekend’s World Cup event.

Hurd, a five-time world medalist, will make her season debut at the all-around event in Tokyo. The 17-year-old from Middletown, Delaware, claimed her second straight world all-around medal last season (a bronze) after winning the world all-around title in 2017. She is considered the top U.S. all-around gymnast after Simone Biles.

Mikulak, a two-time Olympian, won his first individual medal at a Worlds or Olympics last fall, a bronze on high bar. The 26-year-old competed earlier this season at the American Cup, where he finished second in the all-around to teammate Yul Moldauer.

U.S. gymnasts continue to build toward nationals, which will take place in August, and the World Championships in October.

Coverage of the women’s all-around will air Sunday on Olympic Channel: Home of Team USA at 10:30 a.m., with the men’s all-around on Olympic Channel at 12 p.m.

Katie Ledecky makes appearance on Steph Curry’s YouTube show

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By Rachel ThompsonMar 28, 2019, 3:53 PM EDT
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Steph Curry picked a fellow Bay Area-based sports star as the latest guest for his YouTube series “5 Minutes From Home.”

Five-time Olympic gold medalist Katie Ledecky studies and trains at Stanford, about thirty-six miles south of Oracle Arena in Oakland. Ledecky appears in the episode along with Riley Morrison, who wrote to the Warriors star last year when she couldn’t find his sneakers in girls’ sizes (Curry quickly fixed the issue).

Ledecky agreed to push her sleep schedule a bit when Curry reached out: she attended a game and filmed with Curry and Morrison before an early wake-up for morning practice.

The series is centered around conversations between Curry and guests as they drive around the area and share a post-game meal (previous episodes have featured 76ers center Joel Embiid and Bay Area rapper E-40).