Kathleen Ledecky

Sport: Swimming

Nation: United States of America

DOB: March 17, 1997

Hometown: Bethesda, MD

Career Highlights: As the youngest member of the U.S. Olympic team, Ledecky has little experience swimming on big stages. Still, at just 15 years old, she proved she's ready to compete with the world’s finest by winning the 800-meter freestyle at the Olympic trials. She finished two seconds in front of any other swimmer in 8:19.78, breaking the U.S. trials record set by Katie Hoff four years ago. "The experience that she's got ahead of her is so exciting and I'm excited for her because I've been there and it's the coolest," teammate and second-place finisher Kate Ziegler said. Five days earlier, Ledecky narrowly missed qualifying for the 400 freestyle in London, finishing behind 2008 Olympians Allison Schmitt and Chloe Sutton. While the third-place performance wasn’t enough to make the team, her time of 4:05.00 broke the 15-16 age-group record for the event set by four-time Olympic gold medalist Janet Evans in 1988. Ledecky will have the opportunity to learn from the best swimmers in the world in London, and may just get her Olympic medal count started before she can even drive to practice.

Olympic History: None