'Incredible for our sport' - Team USA hail Ledecky - video Dailymotion

Team USA coach Todd DeSorbo and Ryan Murphy heap high praise on Katie Ledecky and her impact on swimming

Transcript

00:00Unbelievable athlete, but probably an even better person and an even better leader.

00:05Lovely.

00:06Thank you.

00:14Someone asked earlier what it's like to climb the mountain and then stay atop that mountain.

00:20And Katie has been that for over a decade now.

00:25And I think it would have been way easier for her to be like,

00:29you know what, I've won three Olympics in a row in a couple of events.

00:33I can get complacent now, but she doesn't do that.

00:37She's constantly pushing the envelope on how she can improve.

00:40And it's incredible for our sport.

00:43She's one of the best of all time.

00:46She was well aware in Tokyo, one of our athletes was preparing for a relay she was going to be on,

00:50and this athlete was very nervous and just upset.

00:54And Katie saw it, understood it, was aware of it, and came up to me and was like,

00:59Todd, I'll take care of it.

01:00And took care of the athlete, the athlete swam great on the relay, they had a great relay.

01:04I don't think a lot of people at her level would necessarily have been looking at anything other than themselves

01:09in a moment like that when they're preparing for a race.

01:12She's an unbelievable athlete, but probably an even better person and an even better leader.

01:16We don't take for granted how difficult it is to even be on this team, to make it through U.S. trials.

01:23So I think when we walked on the pool deck yesterday, saw the lights, saw the big stadium,

01:29I think it felt very similar to trials for us, which I think is a nice advantage that we have,

01:36swimming in that kind of arena.

01:40And then, yeah, just going through the process and trying to get better each year,

01:47trying to get better each quad.

01:50Never being satisfied, always continuing to look ahead.

01:55I think those have been the keys to maintaining this level, continuing to make it back to the Olympics.