SCOTT DETROW, HOST:

From French Olympic greatness to American. Think about what you were doing in the summer of 2012, where you were in your life, where you were in your career. That is when 15-year-old Katie Ledecky burst onto the international swimming scene, blowing away the rest of the field to win the gold medal in the grueling long distance 800-meter freestyle. She did it again four years later in Rio, and then again in the eerily empty Tokyo Games. Ledecky picked up medals and other events as well, and earlier in these Paris Olympics, she became the most decorated female Olympic swimmer of all time.

This afternoon, she returned to the 800. And once again, for the fourth Olympics in a row, she won the gold. Fifteen-year-old Katie Ledecky was the best in the world at it. And now, 12 years later, 27-year-old Katie Ledecky is still the best in the world at it. This happened just a few hours after gymnast Simone Biles won her third gold medal of these Paris Games, further cementing that remarkable comeback she's made from the mental health struggles she faced three years ago in Tokyo. Two GOATs, the greatest of all time in their fields at work in Paris, two American Olympians bolstering their arguments to be a part of the torch lighting when the Olympics come to the United States in four years. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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