Though Katie Ledecky may be America’s top swimmer right now, her Olympic journey behind the scenes has not been easy.
The 27-year-old Olympian has revealed that she went through many health struggles throughout her career. Being a swimmer requires a lot of skills and practice, and she started to notice during the 2015 during the World Aquatics Championships in Russia that she was “extremely hot and lightheaded.” During her practices, she would notice that she would get very fatigued, which is normal, but not to the level that she experienced.
She then thought this was a health issue that should be brought to light, so maybe it could resonate with others. She wrote her own book, Just Add Water: My Swimming Life. She revealed in her storytelling that she was diagnosed with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), which, according to New York-Presbyterian’s Health Matters, means, “a condition in which people experience a fast heart rate, lightheadedness, fatigue, or other symptoms when they go from sitting or lying down to standing.”
In her book, she continued to note, “Because I have POTS, I pool blood in the vessels below my heart when I stand. My body then releases extra norepinephrine or epinephrine, which adds additional stressors on my heart, making it beat faster. This, in turn, brings on dizziness, fainting, and exhaustion.” Despite these symptoms, she opened up about treatments like upping her “sodium intake,” increasing her “hydration,” and even “swimming” more to help alleviate her symptoms.
Since 2015, she did not want to reveal the diagnosis because she felt it would bring “distraction.” In her book, she further explained, “I didn’t want something ‘wrong’ with me to become the narrative around Rio or Team USA…I wasn’t eager to become a distraction or to be distracted myself. I simply wanted to treat my condition as best I could and get back to going hard in the pool. Gradually, following doctor’s orders, I started feeling better.”
Now that she has opened up about her health journey, she told Self that she “feels good.”
