BETHESDA, Md. (AP) — Olympic champion swimmer Katie Ledecky plans to swim for Stanford after she graduates from high school next year.
The 17-year-old from Bethesda, Maryland, announced her commitment Thursday. She is a junior honors student at Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart in her hometown.
Ledecky will join Olympic champion Missy Franklin in the San Francisco Bay Area. Franklin is wrapping up her freshman year at California. She plans to swim during her sophomore year before turning pro leading to the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Ledecky won the 800-meter freestyle as a 15-year-old at the 2012 London Olympics, where she was the youngest member of the entire U.S. team. A year later, she won four gold medals and broke two world records at the world championships in Barcelona. She was chosen the 2013 FINA world swimmer of the year.
Ledecky swims for her high school team and trains at Nation’s Capital Swim Club in Washington under coach Bruce Gemmell.
Under NCAA rules, Stanford women’s swim coach Greg Meehan can’t comment until Ledecky signs a national letter of intent in November.
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