Katie Ledecky: Olympic SportsWoman of the Year

Bethesda's Katie Ledecky, 16, was named one of the U.S. Olympic Committee's 2012-2013 athletes of the year last week, according to a news release from Team USA.

Ledecky, a student at Stone Ridge School in Bethesda, won the gold medal in the women's 800-meter freestyle swimming event at the 2012 Olympics in London, when she was only 15. She was the youngest member of that year's U.S. Olympic team. And this year, she's Olympic SportsWoman of the Year.

This past summer, at the world swimming championships, Ledecky won the women's 1,500-meter freestyle (with a time of 15 minutes, 36.53 seconds), setting a world record at the same time, The Washington Post reported. She also won and set the world record in the 800-meter freestyle, with a time of 8 minutes, 13.86 seconds, at the world swimming championships, The Washington Times reported.

In all this year, Ledecky has "garnered four world championship gold medals and set two world records," Team USA reported.

Ledecky was honored on Oct. 29 in New York, along with this year's other athlete winners: alpine skier Ted Ligety (Olympic SportsMan of the Year), track athlete Raymond Martin (Paralympic SportsMan of the Year), cyclist Monica Bascio (Paralympic SportsWoman of the Year), doubles tennis champions Bob and Mike Bryan (Olympic Team of the Year) and the U.S. men’s 4x100-meter track and field team of Richard Browne, Blake Leeper, Jerome Singleton and Jarryd Wallace (Paralympic Team of the Year), Team USA reported.

The award presentations were part of the "100 Days Out Celebration" commemorating the final countdown to the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics.

>>>Read more about Ledecky on Team USA's website.