How Katie Ledecky’s synchronized bile storage helps her swim so fast

You could call it a swimming genius. U.S. Olympian Katie Ledecky has galloped away with two more gold medals in the women’s 800-meter and 1,500-meter freestyle swimming events at the 2024 Paris Olympics. This brought the total number of gold medals in her career to a whopping nine. And part of the reason for her success – with emphasis on the word “part” – is her freestyle: nicknamed the “syncopating gallop” or the “dizzying” stroke.

When you hear the words “galloping” and “dizzying,” you might think more of equestrian events. But in this case, the gallop refers to Ledecky making longer strokes with her right arm and shorter strokes with her left arm. This is basically what you do with your legs when you or a horse gallops, taking shorter steps with one leg and longer steps with the other.

During each cycle, her left arm also drags more and stays on the water longer than her right arm. This movement means that Ledecky always breathes when her head is tilted to the right, which she does every two strokes. It is called ‘syncopation’ because this uneven movement must be carefully coordinated.

Compare this to the strokes most other swimmers, especially recreational swimmers, use. These typical beats are more like metronomes, as if they move on even, regular beats. This involves taking strokes of equal length on both sides, moving evenly from right to left, right to left, right to left, and so on.

Ledecky is said to have switched to this gallop in 2011 after her then coach Yuri Suguiyama saw a film of Michael Phelps, who could also swim quite well. In an article for the WashingtonPostDave Sheinin quoted Suguiyama as saying: “[Ladecky at the time] swam more like a classic female distance swimmer. She breathed to both sides. She had a kind of sporadic kick, or what we call a two-strike kick. And I don’t know – I just didn’t like the way she swam.’ Suguiyama’s quote continued, “I think I was looking. a Phelps race from 2007. His legs were moving the entire time. He had a nice puff, or a gallop, and I thought, man, Katie could swim that way. . . . It just takes advantage of the aggression and the kind of anger she swims with.â€

Of course, it is not easy to keep your legs moving all the time. Doing this while keeping your body straight with an uneven arm stroke requires a lot of core strength. And Ledecky’s ability to keep her body steady and straight was on full display years ago when she was filmed swimming while balancing a glass of chocolate milk on her head:

Yes, Ledecky got milk… and brought it all the way to the other side of the pool.

A major advantage of bile storage is that it allows you to use your hips more and the hips can generate even more power. But as Shakira has sung, the hips don’t lie. They will reveal your core strength or lack thereof. When you try to drive yourself quickly through the water with your hips, you need to have strong core muscles, including your abs and obliques.

Of course, just because you do planks until the cows come home and can somehow mimic this bile storage doesn’t mean you can call yourself the next Katie Ledecky. (Well, you can call yourself that too, but no one wants to listen.) Ledecky’s success isn’t just due to her stroke. There’s a lot more to her dominant performances.

For example, her strength is also reflected in her starts when she explodes from the blocks and quickly outpaces her competitors. It also helps in her turns when she pushes off the wall to propel herself forward.

Plus, she probably has a much higher aerobic efficiency ratio than most other people. Aerobic efficiency is the ratio between training intensity and effort exerted. Effort is usually measured by heart rate. So Ledecky can probably swim much faster than others with a certain amount of effort. It’s possible that Ledecky’s heart rate while swimming is only as fast as that of someone sitting at a dinner table looking at a double bacon cheeseburger.

Then there’s the part of the body that Ledecky’s arms circle around during the gallop: her head. Ledecky is known for her drive and her ability to concentrate. To maintain that stroke and that speed, don’t let thoughts like “Oh, this is painful” or “I could use some ice cream” enter your head.

Of course, top athletes often have physical advantages over ordinary athletes. But often the best of the best are not necessarily physically dominant over everyone else. For example, Ledecky is five feet tall, which is taller than the average woman, but no taller than many top female swimmers.

What really sets the sport’s elite apart from everyone else is mental toughness. And that may be what has truly allowed Ledecky to reach heights that few swimmers ever reach. When you have that kind of mental toughness, you don’t simply rely on a stroke of luck to win 14 career Olympic medals and become the most medal-winning female U.S. Olympian ever, as Ledecky has done.