In the first meet of her senior year, Katie Ledecky wore a cap belonging to a swimmer from another school who was seriously injured in a car crash.
Ledecky, the Olympic 800m freestyle champion and multiple world record holder, swam for Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart while wearing a Gonzaga College High School swim cap in a meet involving both schools.
Ledecky’s cap had the name “Johannessen” on it. It belongs to Patrick “PJ” Johannessen, a Gonzaga senior swimmer who was seriously injured in a two-car crash that killed one student on Nov. 1.
The gesture came after Ledecky emailed her high school coach and texted with her fellow team captains before Tuesday’s meet.
“We had a group message going to try to figure out what we could do,” Ledecky said, according to reachforthewall.com. “We have all our meets with these guys. ... We feel like we’re one team.
“Once this happened we knew we had to do something to show our support. I have a brother who went to Gonzaga, and a number of kids in the Stone Ridge senior class know Gonzaga and some of the kids who were involved.”
The Stone Ridge team, not just Ledecky, wore purple Gonzaga caps at the meet, according to the report. Gonzaga is an all-boys school.
Ledecky won the 50-yard freestyle and the 100 backstroke at the meet. On Wednesday, she submitted her letter of intent to attend Stanford.