{"id":213586,"date":"2016-07-24T06:00:33","date_gmt":"2016-07-24T13:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=213586"},"modified":"2016-07-24T11:49:33","modified_gmt":"2016-07-24T18:49:33","slug":"morning-splash-the-ascension-of-katie-ledecky-and-simone-biles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/morning-splash-the-ascension-of-katie-ledecky-and-simone-biles\/","title":{"rendered":"Morning Splash: The Ascension of Katie Ledecky and Simone Biles"},"content":{"rendered":"

By David Rieder<\/em><\/p>\n

She is just 19 years old, but she\u2019s been dominant in her sport the past four years, redefining the limits of what anyone thought was possible. Heading into the Olympics in Rio, she is expected to walk away with a full collection of medals. She figures to return to the U.S. very much a household name.<\/p>\n

Sounds like Katie Ledecky<\/strong>, right? Well, yes\u2014the world record-holder in the 400, 800 and 1500 free fits all of these criteria, but one of the Summer Olympics\u2019 other marquee sports has its own young superstar who is expected to win plenty of medals next month in Rio.<\/p>\n

That would be Simone Biles<\/strong>, the gymnast who is heavily favored to win gold in the team competition, the individual all-around, balance beam and floor exercise\u2014and could also finish atop the podium in vault.<\/p>\n

Biles has won four gold medals at the World Championships each of the last two years. Her performance at last year\u2019s event in Glasgow earned her a nomination for the ESPY award for top female athlete of the past year along with Ledecky. Both figure to be among the stars of NBC\u2019s Olympic coverage in the United States.<\/p>\n

Those that follow swimming closely have learned to not be surprised by anything Ledecky can do. Few predicted her to even make the U.S. Olympic team in 2012, let alone to win gold\u2014which she did, in a stunning upset over hometown favorite Rebecca Adlington<\/strong>. Her 400 free world title a year later\u2014where she swam under 4:00 and posted the second-fastest effort in history\u2014opened more eyes.<\/p>\n

But most startling of all was Ledecky\u2019s rise to prominence in the 200 free.<\/p>\n

Sure, great distance swimmers have come before, but Ledecky\u2019s range is almost unprecedented. She beat out a loaded field to win the World title in the 200 free in 2015, becoming the first person to ever sweep the 200, 400, 800 and 1500 gold medals at a World Championships.<\/p>\n

Unlike Ledecky, 15-year-old Biles was not in London four years ago as gymnastics does not allow women younger than 16 into its senior level competitions. The so-called \u201cFierce Five\u201d of Gabby Douglas<\/strong>, McKayla Maroney<\/strong>, Ally Raisman<\/strong>, Kyla Ross<\/strong> and Jordyn Wieber<\/strong> won team gold in London.<\/p>\n

But in 2013, Biles arrived. Eligible for senior-level competition for the first time, Biles won gold medals in the all-around and then in floor exercise at the World Championships in Antwerp.<\/p>\n

But in a sport where careers are so short and returning Olympians so rare, winning a World title right after the Olympics is seen as bad timing.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh great, you\u2019re the World Champion, but nobody cares,\u201d said Will Graves<\/strong>, the lead gymnastics writer for the Associated Press. \u201cThey\u2019re sort of placeholders until that next wave has come along.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turns out that Biles was that next wave. At the 2014 World Championships in Nanning, she defended her two titles and added gold medals in the team competition and on balance beam. Then she won all four a year later in Glasgow. Biles already has more World Championship gold medals in gymnastics than any other woman, and she has not lost an all-around competition in more than three years.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly once or twice in that stretch has somebody been within a half a point of her\u2014which would be the equivalent of a touchdown in a football game,\u201d Graves said.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s Ledecky, who won her two of her gold medals at the World Championships last year by more than 10 seconds.<\/p>\n

Ledecky\u2019s margins of victory in the pool are getting bigger, and she continues to lower her world records. In the gym, Biles has raised her scores each year. Her 60.399 in the all-around at last summer\u2019s World Championship beat silver medalist Douglas by more than a point.<\/p>\n

How? By making her routines more difficult.<\/p>\n

Gymnastics is judged based on the difficulty of a specific routine (D-score) and the execution of that routine (E-score), and it\u2019s not uncommon for gymnasts to intentionally take a lower D-score in hopes of performing that simpler routine better. Four-time U.S. men\u2019s national champion Sam Mikulak<\/strong> was one who made that decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe made a decision on his high bar routine to actually make it easier for him so that he can execute it better,\u201d Graves said. \u201c\u2018I\u2019m going to lose half a point on my difficulty, but if I up it half a point on execution, then it sort of evens out, and I\u2019m less likely to screw that up.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

But Biles attempts moves much more difficult than anyone else in the world. Her D-scores are already so high, but more often than not she still executes.<\/p>\n

\u201cA fall is half a point [deduction]. She\u2019s got so much cushion that she can fall off twice on a certain apparatus, have a major deduction and still be fine. Whereas for most gymnasts that would doom them, for her, it\u2019s not a problem,\u201d Graves said.<\/p>\n

Does this sound familiar? Think back to Ledecky at Olympic Trials when she attacked both the 400 and 800 from the gun and swam well under world record-pace for much of the distance before fading. She made the work more difficult than it needed to be, and both final times were far from her best, but her cushion was so great that it did not matter.<\/p>\n

Leah Smith<\/strong> actually finished less than two seconds behind Ledecky at Trials in the 400 free\u2014improving to fourth all-time in the event in the process\u2014and commented afterwards that it had been cool to actually see Ledecky\u2019s feet. Laurie Hernandez<\/strong>, another of the five gymnasts who earned spots on the U.S. team bound for Rio, was similarly excited to be within a point of Biles halfway through competition at Olympic Trials.<\/p>\n

Biles and Ledecky both have events where they could slip up\u2014Biles in the vault, Ledecky the 200 free\u2014but both have been so dominant in their other events that anything less than three golds each would be a true shocker. These two have redefined limits in their respective sports since 2013, and at the Olympics, the world will see the results.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By David Rieder She is just 19 years old, but she\u2019s been dominant in her sport the past four years, redefining the limits of what anyone thought was possible. Heading<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":211029,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,17,10],"tags":[50558,58108,25272,58110,58106,25031,58107,58103,25513,58109,25356,58105,50104,58104],"class_list":["post-213586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-commentary","category-world","tag-2016-rio-olympic-games","tag-ally-raisman","tag-david-rieder","tag-gabby-douglas","tag-jordyn-wieber","tag-katie-ledecky","tag-kyla-ross","tag-laurie-hernandez","tag-leah-smith","tag-mckayla-maroney","tag-rebecca-adlington","tag-sam-mikulak","tag-simone-biles","tag-will-graves"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\nMorning Splash: The Ascension of Katie Ledecky and Simone Biles<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"19-year-olds Katie Ledecky and Simone Biles have dominated their respective sports for four years and are poised for Olympic success in Rio.\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/morning-splash-the-ascension-of-katie-ledecky-and-simone-biles\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Morning Splash: The Ascension of Katie Ledecky and Simone Biles\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"19-year-olds Katie Ledecky and Simone Biles have dominated their respective sports for four years and are poised for Olympic success in Rio.\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/morning-splash-the-ascension-of-katie-ledecky-and-simone-biles\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Swimming World\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SwimmingWorld\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-07-24T13:00:33+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-07-24T18:49:33+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/katie-ledecky-2016-o-trials-12148.jpg\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2400\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1600\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"David Rieder - Senior Writer\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@David_Rieder\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@swimmingworld\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"David Rieder - Senior Writer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/morning-splash-the-ascension-of-katie-ledecky-and-simone-biles\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/morning-splash-the-ascension-of-katie-ledecky-and-simone-biles\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"David Rieder - Senior Writer\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/610dd0484edf5c4dba59e62a7e5b89af\"},\"headline\":\"Morning Splash: The Ascension of Katie Ledecky and Simone Biles\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-07-24T13:00:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-07-24T18:49:33+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/morning-splash-the-ascension-of-katie-ledecky-and-simone-biles\/\"},\"wordCount\":1033,\"commentCount\":2,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/morning-splash-the-ascension-of-katie-ledecky-and-simone-biles\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/katie-ledecky-2016-o-trials-12148.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"2016 Rio Olympic Games\",\"Ally Raisman\",\"David Rieder\",\"Gabby Douglas\",\"Jordyn Wieber\",\"Katie Ledecky\",\"Kyla Ross\",\"Laurie Hernandez\",\"Leah Smith\",\"McKayla Maroney\",\"Rebecca Adlington\",\"Sam Mikulak\",\"Simone Biles\",\"Will Graves\"],\"articleSection\":[\"-Home Slider\",\"Commentary\",\"World\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/morning-splash-the-ascension-of-katie-ledecky-and-simone-biles\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/morning-splash-the-ascension-of-katie-ledecky-and-simone-biles\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/morning-splash-the-ascension-of-katie-ledecky-and-simone-biles\/\",\"name\":\"Morning Splash: The Ascension of Katie Ledecky and Simone Biles\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/morning-splash-the-ascension-of-katie-ledecky-and-simone-biles\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/morning-splash-the-ascension-of-katie-ledecky-and-simone-biles\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/katie-ledecky-2016-o-trials-12148.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-07-24T13:00:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-07-24T18:49:33+00:00\",\"description\":\"19-year-olds Katie Ledecky and Simone Biles have dominated their respective sports for four years and are poised for Olympic success in Rio.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/morning-splash-the-ascension-of-katie-ledecky-and-simone-biles\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/morning-splash-the-ascension-of-katie-ledecky-and-simone-biles\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/morning-splash-the-ascension-of-katie-ledecky-and-simone-biles\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/katie-ledecky-2016-o-trials-12148.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/katie-ledecky-2016-o-trials-12148.jpg\",\"width\":2400,\"height\":1600,\"caption\":\"Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/morning-splash-the-ascension-of-katie-ledecky-and-simone-biles\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Morning Splash: The Ascension of Katie Ledecky and Simone Biles\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Swimming World\",\"description\":\"The Global Leader in Aquatic News\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Swimming World\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/SWorld_BLKBKG-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/SWorld_BLKBKG-1.jpg\",\"width\":1799,\"height\":900,\"caption\":\"Swimming World\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SwimmingWorld\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/swimmingworld\",\"https:\/\/instagram.com\/swimmingworldmag\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/SwimmingWorldSPI\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/610dd0484edf5c4dba59e62a7e5b89af\",\"name\":\"David Rieder - Senior Writer\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/771e0586ce6532b0e16f68a06c9bd273?s=96&d=blank&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/771e0586ce6532b0e16f68a06c9bd273?s=96&d=blank&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"David Rieder - Senior Writer\"},\"description\":\"David Rieder is a staff writer for Swimming World. He has contributed to the magazine and website since 2009, and he has covered the NCAA Championships, U.S. Nationals, Olympic Trials as well as the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio and the 2017 World Championships in Budapest. He is a native of Charleston, S.C., and a 2016 graduate of Duke University.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/x.com\/David_Rieder\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/author\/davidr\/\"}]}<\/script>\r\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Morning Splash: The Ascension of Katie Ledecky and Simone Biles","description":"19-year-olds Katie Ledecky and Simone Biles have dominated their respective sports for four years and are poised for Olympic success in Rio.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/morning-splash-the-ascension-of-katie-ledecky-and-simone-biles\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Morning Splash: The Ascension of Katie Ledecky and Simone Biles","og_description":"19-year-olds Katie Ledecky and Simone Biles have dominated their respective sports for four years and are poised for Olympic success in Rio.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/morning-splash-the-ascension-of-katie-ledecky-and-simone-biles\/","og_site_name":"Swimming World","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SwimmingWorld","article_published_time":"2016-07-24T13:00:33+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-07-24T18:49:33+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2400,"height":1600,"url":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/katie-ledecky-2016-o-trials-12148.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"David Rieder - Senior Writer","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@David_Rieder","twitter_site":"@swimmingworld","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"David Rieder - Senior Writer","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/morning-splash-the-ascension-of-katie-ledecky-and-simone-biles\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/morning-splash-the-ascension-of-katie-ledecky-and-simone-biles\/"},"author":{"name":"David Rieder - Senior Writer","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/610dd0484edf5c4dba59e62a7e5b89af"},"headline":"Morning Splash: The Ascension of Katie Ledecky and Simone Biles","datePublished":"2016-07-24T13:00:33+00:00","dateModified":"2016-07-24T18:49:33+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/morning-splash-the-ascension-of-katie-ledecky-and-simone-biles\/"},"wordCount":1033,"commentCount":2,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/morning-splash-the-ascension-of-katie-ledecky-and-simone-biles\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/katie-ledecky-2016-o-trials-12148.jpg","keywords":["2016 Rio Olympic Games","Ally Raisman","David Rieder","Gabby Douglas","Jordyn Wieber","Katie Ledecky","Kyla Ross","Laurie Hernandez","Leah Smith","McKayla Maroney","Rebecca Adlington","Sam Mikulak","Simone Biles","Will Graves"],"articleSection":["-Home Slider","Commentary","World"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/morning-splash-the-ascension-of-katie-ledecky-and-simone-biles\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/morning-splash-the-ascension-of-katie-ledecky-and-simone-biles\/","url":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/morning-splash-the-ascension-of-katie-ledecky-and-simone-biles\/","name":"Morning Splash: The Ascension of Katie Ledecky and Simone Biles","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/morning-splash-the-ascension-of-katie-ledecky-and-simone-biles\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/morning-splash-the-ascension-of-katie-ledecky-and-simone-biles\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/katie-ledecky-2016-o-trials-12148.jpg","datePublished":"2016-07-24T13:00:33+00:00","dateModified":"2016-07-24T18:49:33+00:00","description":"19-year-olds Katie Ledecky and Simone Biles have dominated their respective sports for four years and are poised for Olympic success in Rio.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/morning-splash-the-ascension-of-katie-ledecky-and-simone-biles\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/morning-splash-the-ascension-of-katie-ledecky-and-simone-biles\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/morning-splash-the-ascension-of-katie-ledecky-and-simone-biles\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/katie-ledecky-2016-o-trials-12148.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/katie-ledecky-2016-o-trials-12148.jpg","width":2400,"height":1600,"caption":"Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/morning-splash-the-ascension-of-katie-ledecky-and-simone-biles\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Morning Splash: The Ascension of Katie Ledecky and Simone Biles"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/","name":"Swimming World","description":"The Global Leader in Aquatic News","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization","name":"Swimming World","url":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/SWorld_BLKBKG-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/SWorld_BLKBKG-1.jpg","width":1799,"height":900,"caption":"Swimming World"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SwimmingWorld","https:\/\/x.com\/swimmingworld","https:\/\/instagram.com\/swimmingworldmag\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/SwimmingWorldSPI"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/610dd0484edf5c4dba59e62a7e5b89af","name":"David Rieder - Senior Writer","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/771e0586ce6532b0e16f68a06c9bd273?s=96&d=blank&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/771e0586ce6532b0e16f68a06c9bd273?s=96&d=blank&r=pg","caption":"David Rieder - Senior Writer"},"description":"David Rieder is a staff writer for Swimming World. He has contributed to the magazine and website since 2009, and he has covered the NCAA Championships, U.S. Nationals, Olympic Trials as well as the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio and the 2017 World Championships in Budapest. He is a native of Charleston, S.C., and a 2016 graduate of Duke University.","sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/David_Rieder"],"url":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/author\/davidr\/"}]}},"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":"Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick","source_text":"","source_url":""},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/katie-ledecky-2016-o-trials-12148.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p56Jja-TyW","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}