Remedy Rule looked into the stands, stunned by what she saw.
Normally, seats are easy to find at collegiate swim meets, and picking out the faces of specific fans – primarily, the parents of each athlete – is even easier.
But on Nov. 12, nearly 1,800 people entered the Avery Aquatics Center at Stanford.
Rule knew why – and the chants soon began:
“Le-dec-ky! Le-dec-ky! Le-dec-ky!”
The presence of five-time Olympic gold medalist Katie Ledecky was unnerving. The unusually loud reminder that they’d be competing in the same race was unnecessary.
“Needless to say that was intimidating,” Rule said.
Over the summer, Rule was one of the millions mesmerized by Katie Ledecky’s epic performances at the Rio Olympics; Rule was one of the few who truly could grasp the absurdity of each race that ended with a gold medal or world record.
“In a lot of races, you think maybe this person will medal, maybe this person will win gold, but when she was swimming, it was just about how fast she was going to swim and how much she was going to beat the world record by versus whether she’s going to win the gold medal,” Rule said.
Three months later, Ledecky, a freshman at Stanford, and Rule, a sophomore at Texas, shared the same pool, swimming in the 200-meter butterfly.
Ledecky finished in 1:57:23. Rule touched the wall more than a second and a half earlier (1:55:52).
“I was definitely a little nervous,” Rule said of her upset win. “But swimming the race, I just went out how I normally do and focused on my own race, though I will admit when I was turning around the 75, I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m beating Katie Ledecky.’”
Even now, there is still a sense of “Oh my God” when Rule speaks about the outcome, inserting excited giggles between every few words. Her modesty comes through the phone even clearer; a sense of obligation to qualify her victory over the nine-time World Champion because it was in Rule’s best event and an “off race” for Ledecky, whose global domination has been in the freestyle, never the butterfly.
Rule, who grew up in Virginia, had known Ledecky, a Maryland native, for years, attending swim camps together and hovering “somewhere between friends and acquaintances.”
Still, Rule was anxious when she saw Ledecky lining up a few lanes over, in awe to hear the 19-year-old signed autographs for nearly two hours following the meet.
“It just goes to show how Katie Ledecky is changing the sport and changing women’s sports, just being able to inspire so many people,” Rule said. “That’s really cool that she can inspire so many other people with a sport that hasn’t always been extremely popular.”
Swimming only becomes popular every four years, enjoying the national spotlight for a week or so. Ledecky, like Michael Phelps, is now bigger than the sport, a legend for the rest of her life.
And for one race, Rule was even better.
“I got a voicemail from one of my [teammate’s] parents, and it was around the time the Cubs won [the World Series], and they’re like, ‘I think you beating Katie Ledecky is even more of an upset than the Cubs winning,’” Rule said. “And that was very flattering. It wasn’t her best event, but it was still cool.”