-- and it struck me whom she resembles: Olga Korbut.
Each woman is among the greatest ever in her sport (and Ledecky is far from through).
But while they resemble each other facially, and both have huge smiles, they have completely different builds. Korbut was a pixie-like 4'11" and 84 pounds at her peak, as befits a champion gymnast, whereas Ledecky is listed at six feet on the Stanford roster and looks as if she weighs roughly 160.
(It would have been so much cooler if her Stanford bio had merely said "Katie is a passable distance freestyler" rather than exhaustively listing her every last accolade; it's not as if anyone who'd ever go to that website might possibly be unaware of her accomplishments.)
Ledecky, according to Wikipedia, is a quarter Czech, a quarter Jewish, and half Irish. Korbut was born in western Belarus, near the Polish and Lithuanian borders. So their ethnicities are not identical. But from the neck up, they look as if they could have been sisters.
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4 comments:
Amazingly, the two women do look alike in the face.
- birdie
Birdie --
Thank you, yes, they do. I've been a big fan of both women, so I'm a little surprised it didn't hit me until two days ago. I guess part of the reason it never occurred to me before was that their builds were so different.
I became a fan of Katie L. during the Olympics. She seems to have a good character, likeable personality.
- birdie
Birdie --
She is very down to earth. To be honest I could never stand Missy Franklin, the female swimming star of the previous Olympics, she was way too syrupy for me. I'm sure Franklin was a perfectly nice person, but I had to turn the sound off whenever she was being interviewed. So, anyway, Ledecky generally doesn't say much in her interviews, but she is definitely likable.
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