The Olympian alumnae trio from Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart in Bethesda, Maryland, achieved greatness and made history during their swimming events of the Paris 2024 Summer Olympic Games, inspiring hope, pride and joy not only for their alma mater, but for Gator fans throughout The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington and beyond.
This past week, the hometown athletes – Katie Ledecky, Phoebe Bacon and Erin Gemmell – swam in several electrifying races, with Ledecky winning her 14th Olympic medal and adding two more top medals to her record-setting collection of nine golds; Gemmell earning a silver medal in a 4x200-meter freestyle relay; and a strong fourth-place finish for Bacon, narrowly missing a bronze medal in the 200-meter backstroke by .04 seconds.
Ledecky swimming in her fourth consecutive Olympics won a total of four medals in seven days: gold in her signature races – the women’s 800-meter and 1500-meter freestyle events; a silver in the 4x200-meter relay alongside teammate Gemmell; and a bronze in the 400-meter women’s freestyle race. Following these wins in Paris, Ledecky became the most decorated U.S. female Olympian in history.
“Katie, Phoebe and Erin are a great source of pride for the Stone Ridge community,” wrote Catherine Ronan Karrels, the head of Stone Ridge School, who traveled to Paris to cheer on her former students and represent their school at the 2024 Olympic Games. In an e-mail interview, Karrels said, “It is an honor and a great joy to be part of the community here to support them.”
For their races, Karrels was in the viewing stands of the swimming stadium – the Paris La Defense Arena. She wrote that it was a thrill of a lifetime and such fun to witness in person the Gator Olympians swim at the highest level. “I love seeing Katie, Phoebe and Erin swim, because I also know how passionate they are for the sport and for the community that they have built for themselves.”
“It is incredibly inspirational to see these three alumnae competing on the world stage,” Karrels said. “It takes such hard work, dedication, persistence and consistency to compete at their level. It also requires uncommon grace under pressure, focus and resolve.” Karrels was able to give Ledecky a quick congratulatory hug after her 800-meter gold medal ceremony on Aug. 3. Ledecky is the first female Olympian to win the same event four times in a row.
Ahead of the games, Karrels visited St. Francis Xavier Church which houses a reliquary for the Society of the Sacred Heart foundress, St. Madeline Sophie Barat, and Sacre Coeur in Montmartre, where she prayed for the athletes. Stone Ridge School is sponsored by the Religious of the Sacred Heart. “I was able to light candles for Katie, Phoebe and Erin individually, as well as all Sacred Heart Olympians and the broader Sacred Heart community,” she said.
On July 25, more than 600 enthusiastic Stone Ridge Gator fans of all ages – many wearing specially-designed Bacon/Gemmell/Ledecky Team USA Olympic T-shirts showing a figure swimming beneath the Eiffel Tower – turned out in full force to the Bethesda campus of the all-girls k-12 Catholic school. Stone Ridge sold more than 2,000 T-shirts prior to the Olympics and the alumnae athletes’ family and friends in attendance could be seen wearing them in the Paris swimming venue stands during their races.
Congratulatory messages from all over the world filled Stone Ridge’s social media pages during the week of amazing swim races. Closer to home, Kate Rodgers of Silver Spring, Maryland, posted on the school’s Facebook page, “While having the swims of lifetime, they have brought so much joy, love and excitement to our community. I am so proud to know and cheer on these fellow Stone Ridge girls!” Another supporter wrote, “Such grace in those girls from His Heart.”
“The Catholic Schools Office is excited to cheer on our incredible #ADWcommUNITY Olympic alumnae athletes: Katie Ledecky ’15, Phoebe Bacon ’20 and Erin Gemmell ’23!” was posted on the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington and the ADW Catholic Schools Facebook pages last week.
While it is not uncommon for swimmers from the same college to be named to an Olympic team together, it is nearly unprecedented for three athletes who attended the same high school to do so. Only 20 women were named to the 2024 U.S. Olympic Women’s Swimming Team. With Stone Ridge alumnae earning three of those spots, 15 percent of the 2024 U.S. Olympic Women’s Swimming Team was composed of Stone Ridge Gators. After this week, the Stone Ridge Olympians tallied up more medals than some entire countries participating in the Summer Games.
“The entire Stone Ridge Community as well as fans and friends from all over the world have witnessed one of the greatest Olympians of all time in Katie Ledecky,” said Bob Walker, the Stone Ridge Swim and Dive Coach, who coached all three Gator alumnae during their high school years.
Walker said Stone Ridge’s Olympic trio is one of the great stories of the 2024 Summer Games. “Erin’s first, Phoebe’s second, and Katie's fourth Olympics never gets old! I know they will take one day at a time or even one year at a time after the games are over, and hopefully we will see Erin’s second, Phoebe’s third and Katie’s fifth...and maybe with the special water we must have in the Stone Ridge pool, another athlete or two arrive on the Olympic stage!”
Ledecky, 27, a captain of the Team USA swim team, posted on her Instagram page that when she earned the gold medal in the 800-meter freestyle race on Aug. 3, it was 12 years to the day from when she won her first gold medal in that event during the London 2012 games as a 15-year-old rising Stone Ridge sophomore. “Got the job done for the 4-peat,” she wrote. She continued by thanking all those who supported her Olympic journey – her coaches, teammates, family, friends and sponsors. “It’s not always going to feel pretty or 100% perfect, but if I have learned anything this Olympic cycle, it’s that the results can still feel rewarding with the right attitude, effort and focus… and especially when supported by great people.” Ledecky currently holds the women’s 800-meter and 1500-meter freestyle world records.
Ledecky also gave a special shout out on Instagram to her supporters and fans in the local community, including Stone Ridge, Little Flower School in Bethesda, where she attended elementary school and has been a parishioner, and the Palisades Porpoises, her neighborhood pool where she first started swimming competitively as a 6-year-old youngster. “Thank you for your continued love…I can’t wait to celebrate with each of you when I get home,” she wrote. Little Flower School in Bethesda recently displayed a large banner congratulating both Ledecky and Bacon, who also attended elementary school there.
After the razor-thin margin of missing the podium in the women’s 200-meter backstroke, Phoebe Bacon, 21, said of her large cheering contingent of family and friends at her race, “It just shows the amount of support that I have in doing something I love and work so hard at. It makes me happy and proud.” In an interview with NBC4 Washington, she said, “Younger Phoebe would say she’s embarrassed, but older Phoebe now just loves it.” Bacon is the current 2024 U.S. NCAA national 200-meter backstroke champion and swims for the University of Wisconsin.
At the Stone Ridge pep rally, her mother, Philippa, told the Catholic Standard that Phoebe is looking forward to one more year of collegiate swimming and will be joined on the Wisconsin Badger’s swim and dive team by her younger brother, Finn, a recent graduate of Gonzaga College High School in Washington, who like his older sister is a backstroke swimmer.
The youngest of the group, 19-year-old Erin Gemmell, whose dad, Bruce, is one of Ledecky’s former local coaches at the Nation’s Capital Swimming Club, anchored the women’s 4x200-meter freestyle relay race to capture silver, along with her childhood swim idol, Ledecky. “Yesterday was absolutely amazing!!! I am extremely honored to have won a silver medal for Team USA along with six other amazing women. Dreams do come true, and above all I had so much fun!!! Here’s to (hopefully) many more relays to come.” Gemmell, who now swims for the University of Texas, famously dressed up as Katie Ledecky the Olympian for Halloween when she was a little girl.
Looking ahead to the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles, Ledecky told NBC’s Today Show on August 5 that she definitely hopes to race again at the next Olympics in four years. “I’m going to take it year by year, but it would be a dream to compete in front of a home crowd,” she said.
Bob Walker, the Olympians’ Stone Ridge coach, would also love to see that happen for all of his former Gator swimmers, as well as future ones. “All smiles from me for these three and to all the athletes out there that train endlessly with the thought of being an Olympian,” he said.
