Meet Katie Grimes, the Olympian dubbed the future of swimming

Katie Grimes She wasn’t going to let the disappointing swimmer waste her chances of going to her first Olympics.

The 18-year-old told E! “I’m just a stubborn person by nature.” News in an exclusive interview, reminiscing about her turnaround at the U.S. Olympic Trials in 2021 after her very slow finish in the 400-meter individual medley. “I was really upset, but I didn’t want to let this trip be my journey. I was so passionate about this goal of mine, I wasn’t going to let it slip away like that.”

So after failing in the race she was most confident in, she flipped the script and ended up finishing second in the 800m freestyle final, enough to secure her ticket to Tokyo when she was just 15, making Grimes the youngest member of the team. the complete The US Olympic team that year.

Meanwhile, the winner of this race had some encouraging words for the young woman who joined her on the podium.