How Katie Ledecky played a role in Nelly Korda’s Olympic arrival

There is shared turf between Nelly Korda and Katie Ledecky on the great lawn of U.S. sports celebrity.

And also, it turns out, at the Olympic Aquatic Center.

On Monday morning, Korda descended upon Le Golf National in Paris to begin her title defense at the women’s Olympic golf competition. Her arrival marked the beginning of a whirlwind trip to France for the World No. 1, starting with a flight into Paris on Saturday of the men’s tournament and ending, she hopes, with a gold medal next Saturday afternoon.

But those events were interrupted — only briefly — for a defense of a different kind. Paris La Defense, on the other side of the city, where Korda saw another dominant women’s athlete, Katie Ledecky, en route to become the most decorated female Olympian ever in the 800-meter freestyle.

“I caught Katie Ledecky win the 800 and a couple of the relays,” Korda admitted on Monday. “That was really exciting.”

Korda watched from up close as Ledecky notched a record-setting 14th Olympic medal — the most-ever for a female athlete — in the 800.

“That’s something that I watched as a kid was swimming and gymnastics,” Korda said. “So getting to do that in person was definitely a bucket list thing.”

As an Olympic golfer, Korda isn’t living out the traditional athlete experience at the games. She’s opted for her own travel over the Olympic charter flight, her own accommodations over the Olympic village, and a week in Paris over the traditional fortnight. Typically, a schedule like Korda’s wouldn’t leave much time for Olympic schmoozing. With the golf tournament in a relatively distant suburb of Paris, far away from many of the Games’ other venues, making it to an event like the 800 requires a carefully coordinated effort.

Ledecky held up her end of the bargain, blowing away the field in the 800. But gold or not, Korda’s visit was about witnessing one of the sports world’s few kindred spirits up close.

Few athletes in this year’s Games can relate to Korda’s competitive experience better than Ledecky. Like Korda, Ledecky flourished under the national spotlight as a teenager, and, like Korda, the years that have followed have seen the competitive landscape in her sport stiffen considerably. In Paris, both athletes found themselves in a uniquely disadvantaged position: feeling the weight of present-day expectations against the Olympic success of their younger selves. Korda is wise enough to realize she’s lucky — unlike the swimmers and gymnasts, her relevance isn’t tied to an all-or-nothing month once every four years. (“It makes me appreciate what they do that much more,” she said.)

But Nelly is also human, which means she feels the burden of expectation just like everybody else. Ledecky has managed the weight of the spotlight flawlessly, winning at a clip we’ve never seen in women’s swimming. After stumbling out of the blocks with a bronze medal finish in the 400-meter freestyle, Ledecky demolished the field with back-to-back wins in the 1500 and 800. Korda, whose game has cooled considerably since winning five straight events leading into the early summer, is looking to find some similar resilience.

These are the sorts of storylines faced by this crop of American Olympians every four years. Korda should know.

“That’s something we all did as a family. We sat in front of the TV and watched everyone compete and live out their dreams,” Korda said. “To be able to do that myself and be an Olympian — [I] never thought that I would.”

Korda was quick to caution that she doesn’t feel like a return winner at Le Golf National, partly because she isn’t (her Olympic victory came 6,050 miles away, at Kasumageski Golf Club in Tokyo, a totally different layout from this year’s event) and partly because the 2020 Olympics feel so long ago. She’s trying to avoid the old trap of setting expectations too high, perhaps borrowing a page from the unflappable Ledecky.

Like Ledecky, though, come Wednesday she’ll be the favorite no matter what she says on Monday. There’s a lesson in there about embracing it all, about focusing on the effort and not the outcome, about letting the good things come to you.

Thankfully, Korda knows you can feel the pressure, lean into it and win anyway. She saw that up close at the Aquatic Center on Saturday.