【明報專訊】Born in 1997 in Washington DC, the US, Katie Ledecky started swimming at 6. She did so with her brother just to make friends. Nine years afterwards, when she was 15, she won a gold medal in the 800-metre freestyle event at the 2012 London Olympics. In January this year, she set a new 800-metre freestyle record of 8 minutes and 6.68 seconds at the 2016 Arena Pro Swim Series in the US. It is her eleventh world record.

Katie now provides meals to homeless people once a month. Moreover, she likes to collect, assemble and repair bicycles for people in developing countries.

■English highway - words and collocations

swimming strokes

There are many swimming strokes. The four competitive swimming styles are freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly.

e.g. Bill won a gold medal in a 400-metre breaststroke swimming competition.

■Glossary

assemble (v) 裝配

developing country (n phr) 發展中國家