Part of the inspiration for American Olympic swimmer Katie Ledecky comes from the story of her 83-year-old paternal Jewish grandmother, Berta, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. JTA cited a profile in Sports Illustrated which says when Katie was 10, Berta took her to a Jewish cemetery in Prague and showed her graves of her family members who died during the Holocaust.
SI's S.L. Price wrote the memory clearly stuck with Katie and is the “fuel” that drives her. The daughter of a non-Jewish mother, Katie is a practicing Catholic.