When it comes to sports, there’s only one sports event that I avidly watch every four years when it comes around: the Summer Olympics. While the gymnastics, beach volleyball, and track events are fun to watch, my favorite events are the swimming events, specifically Katie Ledecky in her freestyle distance events. This Youtube clip is from the 2016 Rio Olympics for the Women’s 800m freestyle. She was the reigning gold medalist from the 2012 Olympics, and in this race, she proved to the world that she dominates in distance freestyle swimming. This sports branch in the freestyle distance events is defined by swimmers with endurance and good form. This sport is geared towards people during the summer when swimming is more accessible due to good weather conditions. The rules of this sport are straightforward, having competitors stay in their lane and complete the required 800m, as well as making legal flip turns. Within the video that I have chosen, I think there is more interplay regarding “playing sports” instead of “playing gender.” This is because, in the Olympics, the events are divided by gender. Katie Ledecky also beats the world record previously held by herself. Therefore, the fact that she broke her world record and had such a considerable lead throughout the entire race, leaving the rest of the swimmers competing for silver and bronze, is indeed “wild” as it shows the domination of one person in this freestyle event.
Furthermore, at the 2016 Rio Olympics, Katie Ledecky also won the gold medal for the 200m and 400m freestyle events, thereby sweeping gold for all three distance freestyle events, which a woman had not accomplished since 1968. Additionally, Katie Ledecky would later successfully campaign to add the 1500m freestyle to the Olympics. This had been an event for men’s swimmers since 1904 and was only just added to the Olympic roster for women in 2021. Therefore, it is wild to think that women were barred from this race for such a long time.
-Juliette Chartier
It is truly impressive and “wild” when someone is so great at their sport that they beat their own world record which hasn’t been beaten by anyone. Kate has exceeded expectations so much that it is almost as if her greatest competition is not any other swimmer, but her past self.
I think that it could be argued that Katie Ledecky exemplifies “wild” perfectly. Her abilities as a swimmer go beyond conventionality and constantly breaks the norms. She breaks the boundaries of the sport by constantly setting new records. Overall, her performance as an athelete demonstrates the “wild” perfectly because she does not conform to the norm.