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Albert Einstein devoted his career to discovering the underlying formula for the universe, but if one actually exists, it is still unknown nearly 70 years after his death. The sporting community has people that are equally devoted to understanding how specific individuals can develop into nearly flawless and consistent competitors that appear to improve while others fade over time. Is there an equation for this? Katie Ledecky has the answer to that within the pages of this very gracious and entertaining book.
Ledecky wrote Just Add Water while preparing for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, and yet she subtly (and accurately) predicted that she would continue to win races during the Games. Hubris? Ego? Conceit? I don’t think so; she quite simply knows her abilities, her physical state, and herself. She also knows precisely how she arrived at the threshold of becoming the most decorated female Olympian of all time, and this is what she is sharing with us.
The chapters of Just Add Water are in rough chronological order, yet each is devoted to a person, event, or concept that contributed to the author’s development as a person and as a swimmer, in that order. Many readers may actually feel some twinge of jealousy as they learn of her family history and understand how much those people directly influenced her path.
One particular facet is the almost unbelievable optimism and determination that obviously distilled from the women in her family: “My grandma showed me how to love the beauty of each day. To be thankful for the people who cross your path. To distinguish and amplify the good.” Other ancestors encouraged her to always look forward, not back, and to choose kindness over cruelty.
Her training from a variety of coaches helped her to establish the idea that if one can dream something, very often, that person can, in fact, do it. Once she started winning races as a preteen, she dared to believe that she could perform at an even higher level, and she ended up in London for the 2012 Olympics as the youngest member of Team USA. She won her first gold medal there and has since been unbeaten in the 800-meter freestyle.
She is straightforward about the dedication and sacrifice necessary to achieve what she has accomplished. She also offers clear explanations of the challenges inherent to being a top female athlete vs. being a top male athlete in our modern world. She is open about how her life is very, very different from what is considered typical, but she also freely admits that she wants to WIN.
The prose indicates that she can write almost as well as she can swim. Her usage of specific persons and circumstances to highlight the different phases of her life is well done and protects her story from becoming a bunch of boring bullet points. I just felt Just Add Water could have used some more editing: a number of typos, missing words, and grammatical oddities should have been caught.
Rated: None. Two instances of mild off-color terms.
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