I didn't make the 7th-grade travel basketball team. (In 7th grade. Not, like, recently.)
I didn't get into Georgetown, despite a family tree decorated with Hoyas—two brothers, a sister, and my dad.
As an adult, I've had to watch as opportunities I coveted slipped through my fingers or passed me by, even when I felt I deserved them (or was more deserving of them, depending on the circumstances).
But whether those outcomes were entirely of my own doing or not, each moment led to closed doors that have echoed down the hallway of my life.
Of course, pondering these hypotheticals can drive us batshit insane if we spend too long thinking about them.
I’ve found Tupac has the best advice for when you find yourself stuck in the doom loop of "what-ifs":
"You can spend minutes, hours, days, weeks, or even months over-analyzing a situation; trying to put the pieces together, justifying what could've, would've happened... or you can just leave the pieces on the floor and move the fuck on."
But leaving the pieces on the floor isn't about abandoning our standards. It's about redefining victory itself.
No one embodies this better than Katie Ledecky, and her willingness to fully own her journey—even in defeat.
After her first-ever individual Olympic loss in the 400m freestyle at the 2020 Olympic Games, she sat before the international press at the podium and offered the following:
"It's very satisfying to swim a time like that. Start my meet off like that," she said. "It may seem silly to some people that I am saying that, but... I'm driven by the clock. To swim my second fastest time is confidence boosting."
I am driven. by. the clock.
We talk about the race against time as a metaphor for our lives all the time, but Ledecky shares here a more meaningful metaphor about the clock itself: It's not our enemy. It's our most honest mirror.
Until this week, I took her words as the most powerful statement I'd ever encountered about falling short of a goal.
Then I realized—she wasn't competing against the field or for the gold medal; she was competing with the absolute best version of herself.
And as such, she didn't fall short of anything.
And she wants us all to know that.
What a complete and total badass.
So, remember that your race this week — and always, my friends — is with the clock. The only person you need to outperform is yesterday's version of yourself.
Because they're the only other person in the pool.
In your corner,
PS: Why did you get this today, on an “off” Friday? Due to overwhelmingly positive feedback, we are moving to a weekly publishing schedule. Pray for us.
The Legend:
The most decorated female swimmer of all time. 13 Olympic medals. 8 gold medals. Most dominant distance swimmer ever.
Katie Ledecky's dominance in distance freestyle had become almost mythological before that fateful morning in Tokyo.
Since bursting onto the scene as a 15-year-old at the 2012 London Olympics, she had never lost an individual Olympic race. The pattern was always the same: world records, gold medals, and victories measured not in hundredths of seconds but in body lengths.
As Phil Lutton of the Sydney Morning Herald would observe about her unprecedented supremacy:
"The American has seen more clear water than perhaps any other elite swimmer in history. When she breathes, she has been accustomed to looking to each side, and seeing vacant lanes."
The Moment:
Tokyo Olympics, July 26, 2021.
For the first 300 meters of the 400-meter freestyle final, Ledecky led her emerging rival, Australia's Ariarne Titmus.
Ledecky's strategy was aggressive: surge early, put Titmus on the defensive, and plant seeds of doubt.
It was a tactical choice that swimmers will employ against those with superior finishing speed. It's also a plan that nearly worked — Titmus later admitted that seeing Ledecky almost a body length ahead at the halfway mark had rattled her.
The scene was a stark contrast to Rio 2016, where Ledecky had claimed this same event by the almost unfathomable margin of nearly five seconds.
But this was not Rio, and Titmus would overtake Ledecky just ahead of the final lap. "Surreal," the Australian would say after securing gold. "It's the biggest thing you can do in your sporting career."
For Ledecky's part: "You're just trying to find every little part to try to inch ahead. She flipped a little bit ahead coming into the last 50. I could see her, and I knew that she wasn't fading. I felt like I was still right there... I had a fast last 50. She just had a really fast last 50."
When Titmus touched the wall at 3:56.69—just two-thirds of a second ahead of Ledecky's 3:57.36—it marked the end of Ledecky's nine-year reign in the 400 freestyle.
Katie Ledecky had raced the third-fastest time ever.
As in, ever.
And it was not fast enough to win gold.
The Words:
"I can’t be disappointed with that. It was my second best swim ever, and I fought tooth and nail. That’s all you can ask for.”
The Echo:
What unfolded in Tokyo wasn't noteworthy as an upset so much as a revelation about excellence itself. For nearly a decade, Ledecky's dominance had been so complete that victory seemed predetermined. Yet what we witnessed that morning was something more profound than the end of an era—it was a masterclass in what it means to truly pursue excellence for its own sake.
While Titmus's coach Dean Boxall's wild celebration captured viral headlines, the deeper story emerged in the aftermath. Like a stone dropped in still water, Ledecky's response rippled through the sports world, challenging our understanding of what defines greatness. This wasn't just about a champion facing defeat—it was about redefining what victory means, even at the highest levels of human achievement.
The Lesson:
The truest measure of Ledecky's character emerged not in the thousands of victorious laps where she'd left the field in her wake, but in the moment she touched the wall with the third-fastest time in history—and found it wasn't enough for gold. What we witnessed wasn't just grace in defeat; it was the profound understanding that excellence needs no external validation.
The legacy of that morning in Tokyo lives in Ledecky's words, almost defiant in their clarity: "I can't be disappointed with that." In that moment, she showed us that real mastery isn't about being unbeatable—it's about knowing that your absolute best is enough, regardless of the outcome. The most profound victory, perhaps, lies not in standing atop the podium, but in knowing you've touched the outer limits of your own potential, even when someone else has touched the wall first.
The Deep Dive:
📹: Titmus Hands Ledecky First Olympic Loss in 400 (NBC Sports)
📰: Katie Ledecky’s Dominance Dashed by Australia’s Ariarne Titmus in 400 Freestyle (Los Angeles Times)
📰: How Titmus Survived Swimming’s Most Brutal Test in Tokyo Triumph (The Sydney Morning Herald)
Outcomes are out of your control.
“Your potential, the absolute best you’re capable of—that’s the metric to measure yourself against. Winning is not enough. People can get lucky and win. People can be assholes and win. Anyone can win. But not everyone is the best possible version of themselves.” (Ego is the Enemy)
Ed. Note — Guys, people can really, really be assholes and win.
Perfectionism is f-ing with your head.
The life of a perfectionist is… “a life riddled with fear and extreme caution. Creativity, joy, inspiration, and even productivity are stunted when perfection is the only option. Ironically, according to some scholars, successful people actually are less likely to be perfectionists, as the symptoms of perfectionism are more likely to thwart higher levels of success one might achieve.” (Your Best Life: Perfectionism — The Bane of Happiness)
It’s you, hi, you’re the problem, it’s you.
Actually, it’s your expectations. They are making you miserable.
“Without expectations, acceptance of what is would be infinitely easier. And you would be happier. We suffer when our reality doesn’t match the expectation we are so attached to. If you can relate to this brand of discomfort – the kind fueled by a life drunk with expectations and the resulting crash we experience when things do not go as planned or hoped – then you have experienced an Expectation Hangover.” (Why Expectations Are the Root of All Evil)
12 years. 4 teams. 5 Pro Bowls. And finally, 1 Super Bowl trip.
Game ball to DeAndre Hopkins not for getting to enjoy the confetti shower in Buffalo a few weeks back, but for not missing the opportunity to use his platform for the best of things in the run-up to Sunday’s big game in New Orleans.
Here’s to hoping his message finds the ears it needs to, and that he looks fresh AF in his old man’s mink coat before the game kicks off.
To Stay in Our Hoops Headlines All Season Long — Jersey Girls
To Forever Embrace Running Their Own Race — Isaiah Thomas
“Don’t be mad at me cuz I’m chasing something I love!” (Twitter / Y! Sports AM)
