KATIE LEDECKY

2021 Games of Texas: Swimmers relish opportunity to compete after COVID-19 canceled meets over the last year.

American star Caeleb Dressel still has a shot at five gold medals.

Katie Ledecky made more history for the U.S. in the pool.

Team USA swimming has been going for gold at this year's Olympic games, with some even making history.

The willingness of athletes, led by Simone Biles, to talk about the pressures they face as elite athletes on the Olympics stage, has forced a look at how NBC presents the Games to the public.

American swimmer Katie Ledecky has won Olympic gold again in the 800 meter freestyle. She repeated her gold medal swim at the 2012 London and 2016 Rio de Olympics to win at the Tokyo Olympics.

Caeleb Dressel has won his third gold medal of the Tokyo Olympics with a world record in the 100-meter butterfly.

Caeleb Dressel is expected to be the star of Day 7 at the Tokyo Games as he seeks his third gold medal in Friday night coverage of the Olympics.

Caeleb Dressel got his first individual gold medal, the Chinese women put together a record-setting relay and American Sunisa Lee won the women’s all-around gymnastics gold.

Zhang Yufei had a much busier morning than she was expecting at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.

The Team USA star took the top spot in the 100-meter freestyle, and his emotions spilled out in an interview afterwards.

Caeleb Dressel lived up to the hype in an Olympics where many of the U.S. favorites have faltered.

It's the sixth gold medal of Ledecky's career.

Biles' teammates applauded her decision to take care of her mental well-being. But she's not the only athlete who has spoken about the pressures of performing at the Games.

The U.S. women's swimming team is pocketing plenty of medals at the Olympic pool.

Katie Ledecky will be the first to concede that her standards are almost impossible to meet, especially at this stage of her stellar swimming career.

The Australian swimmer known as the Terminator who took down Katie Ledecky at the Olympics has done it again.

Katie Ledecky got her first gold medal of these Olympics, while Simone Biles pulled out of another event she came into the Games favored to win.

She did it in the first-ever Olympic women's 1,500-meter freestyle -- then she got emotional.

The biggest star of U.S. swimming has not had the start to these Olympics that she wanted. But she absolutely dominated in the 1,500 meter freestyle race.

Finally, a gold medal in Tokyo for Katie Ledecky.

Day 5 of the Tokyo Games features another busy day at the Aquatics Centre with five swimming finals and the men’s diving synchronized springboard final.

Alaska, of all places, has an Olympic champion at the pool.

The men's basketball team suffered a stunning seven-point defeat to France and the women's gymnastics team came in second behind Russia in the qualifying round.

Simone Biles and Team USA seek their third consecutive gold medal in women's gymnastics in Tuesday's team final.

The opening ceremony is taking place Friday morning, marking the official start of the Games.

Two-time Olympic gold medalist Caeleb Dressel helped the U.S. defend its title.

Races often end in a blur for Canada’s Maggie MacNeil because she wears glasses outside the pool but doesn’t use contacts or prescription goggles when swimming.

Katie Ledecky strolled onto the deck first, which meant she was headed to the second spot on the medal podium.

Dressel, who's been hailed as the successor to Michael Phelps, got started on his quest for six gold medals in swimming.

Ariarne Titmus and Luka Doncic made memorable Olympic debuts.

After years of chasing the American, Australia's Titmus took the gold — and her coach went wild.

Australia's Ariarne Titmus narrowly edged her out of gold in the 400 meter freestyle final. Ledecky, the biggest star of U.S. swimming, has a fierce rivalry with Titmus.

Caeleb Dressel got started on his quest for six gold medals in swimming, while Katie Ledecky found herself in a very unusual position: Second place.

Katie Ledecky opened her Olympic program as the top qualifier in the 400-meter freestyle, setting up a showdown with Ariarne Titmus of Australia.

Ulugbek Rashitov won Uzbekistan’s first Olympic taekwondo gold medal in dramatic fashion by beating Bradly Sinden of Britain.

Two of America's biggest stars begin their Tokyo Games on Sunday.

Chase Kalisz knows what’s coming: Pain, and lots of it in the 400-meter individual medley that gets swimming underway at the Tokyo Olympics.

A debate is brewing between former gold medalist Maya DiRado and some American swimmers over U.S. medal threat Michael Andrew’s decision not to be vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus on the eve of competition at the Tokyo Olympics.

The Tokyo Games have arrived at last, after a yearlong delay.

Tokyo will have no fans, but the athletes are what make the Games memorable.

NPR's Ailsa Chang speaks with Team USA CEO Sarah Hirshland about prepping for this year's Olympics in Tokyo and what the event will look like with COVID-19 precautions such as having no spectators.

Times subscribers will get a special 24-page Olympic preview section, a passport to the most unique Games ever staged, delivered to their homes Sunday.

There won’t be any reaction shots of excited, shocked or crying family members in the stands at the Tokyo Olympics.

We lost a lot last summer due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and one of those things was the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

The stars shined on the next-to-last night of the U.S. Olympic swimming trials in Omaha.

Katie Ledecky’s most grueling night at the U.S. Olympic swimming trials resulted in two more victories.

The Lilly King Show is headed to Tokyo.

Katie Ledecky is unrivaled in the 1500-meter free, and the superstar swimmer proved why the 30-lap race is considered her best event Tuesday night.

Lilly King always seems to back up her big talk.

Katie Ledecky touched the wall far ahead of everyone else at the U.S. swimming trials.

Katie Ledecky won the 1,500-meter freestyle at the Pro Swim Series meet with the world’s fastest time this year.

Katie Ledecky won the 200-meter freestyle at the TYR Pro Swim Series meet with the world’s fastest time this year.

Outside of it, the Olympic champion is pushing herself in a new endeavor to boost the profile of women’s sports. AdShe’s aiming to defend her 100 free title at the Tokyo Olympics, delayed for a year by the coronavirus pandemic. When Stanford closed its facilities last March, Manuel and training partner Katie Ledecky found a backyard pool to work out in. He failed to make it out of the preliminaries, finishing 32nd in the 100 free and 25th in the 100 breaststroke. Blake Pieroni won the men’s 100 free in 49.19 seconds.

(AP Photo/Michael Sohn)Like everyone else, Katie Ledecky was forced to shelve her plans when the coronavirus pandemic took hold. Ledecky is still working toward making a big splash at this summer’s delayed Tokyo Games. Ledecky is among several big names diving back in with three months to go until the U.S. Olympic trials. Caeleb Dressel, Simone Manuel, double backstroke world-record holder Regan Smith, and Ryan Lochte will swim over four days in the first single-site American meet since the pandemic began. In the early days of the pandemic, Ledecky scrambled to find a pool to train in after Stanford shut down its facilities.

Irvine is hosting about 240 swimmers — a mix of national team members, collegians and high schoolers — competing outdoors under strict safety guidelines at a time when COVID-19 is surging again in many parts of the country. Ryan Lochte, seeking to make his fifth Olympic team at age 36, is competing at the U.S. Open site in Sarasota, Florida. Swimmers enter the complex through a designated spot and follow a progression from the warm-up pool, competition pool, warm-down pool and exit. The number of swimmers who can be in the same lane training at the same time is limited to a maximum of four. Multiple sessions are being staged to keep the number of swimmers at the complex at one time lower.

Adam Peaty of Great Britain celebrates after breaking a World Record 56.88 in the Men's 100m Breaststroke Semifinal on day one of the Gwangju 2019 FINA World Championships at Nambu International Aquatics Centre on July 21, 2019 in Gwangju,A couple of milliseconds make a world record of a difference. Swimming phenom Adam Peaty beat his own record time for the men's 100-meter breaststroke early Sunday, becoming the first man to finish the race in under 57 seconds. The 24-year-old Brit clocked in at 56.88, nearly two seconds ahead of his opponents, in the event's semifinals at the 2019 World Aquatic Championships in Gwangju, South Korea. He is scheduled to compete in the final round of the men's 100-meter breaststroke Monday. "I've come here to win a world title, and that's tomorrow, and that's still my main focus," he said.