At first blush, there’s no reason to think Katie Ledecky would be as dominant in freestyle swimming events as she is. “She doesn’t have especially large feet or hands which you really need to push a huge mass of water. She’s 5’11”, which is tall but she’s certainly shorter than other great swimmers," says Rowdy Gaines, three-time Olympic gold medalist and now a swimming analyst for NBC. "And she definitely has a subpar kick.