Katie Ledecky Shares Her Earliest Memories in the Pool 'Before' She Racked Up 14 Olympic Medals (Exclusive)

The 14-time Olympic champion caught up with PEOPLE at the quarter-final matches of the U.S. Open in New York City

Katie Ledecky has always been the kind of person who just dives right in.

The 14-time Olympic champion, who became the most decorated American female Olympian in history at the 2024 Paris Games, has been swimming since she was just six years old. By 2012 — just nine years later — Ledecky made her Olympic debut at the London Games, where she won first place in the 800-meter freestyle.

Fast forward to 2024, and Ledecky boasts nine gold medals, four silver and one bronze — which she tells PEOPLE she keeps in a rather practical place, especially when she's on the move.

"Right now, they're in socks in a little bag," she says with a laugh, gesturing toward the small, clear purse filled with puck-shaped red, white and blue socks laying just beyond her reach as she sits in the Ralph Lauren suite at the U.S. Open.

Related: Golden Again! Katie Ledecky Wins 1500-Meter Freestyle in Olympic-Record Time, Her 8th Gold

The 27-year-old admits that she has her eyes on the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles next, but looking back, her earliest memories in the water actually have nothing to do with competition.

"I played games with my mom and my older brother, like Marco Polo, doing bobs in the water, learning how to blow bubbles, things like that," she says.

Related: How Katie Ledecky Inspired Olympic Hopefuls Phoebe Bacon and Erin Gemmell When They Were Guppies (Exclusive)

Besides the medals she won, Ledecky says her favorite part of the Paris experience was the "energy of the spectators" who came out to watch the swimming.

"Every prelims and final session was packed, so that was really special," she says. "And then all the venues were right downtown in very iconic locations, and so even just bus rides to and from the pool, you got to see a lot of Paris, which was nice."

The 2024 Olympics were also different for Ledecky for another reason, too.

"Paris was the first Olympics where I stayed the second week and got to see some of the other sports. I went to women's basketball, men's basketball, women's golf," she says. "I got to see one of my really close Stanford friends, Albane Valenzuela, from Switzerland. She's been to three Olympics, so I feel like I just have friends from all over the world now. Getting to watch them compete is special."

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Ledecky graduated from Stanford in the fall of 2020. During her time there, she won eight NCAA titles and set 15 NCAA records.

"I speak to myself in a very positive way with a positive voice in my head," she says of her race strategy. "I do that in training every day, so I'm always ready."

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