Three Olympic swimmers emerge from one Bethesda private school to compete in Paris

Phoebe Bacon and Erin Gemmell were accustomed to swimming in Katie Ledecky’s long shadow at Stone Ridge School for the Sacred Heart.

This summer, though, the three Stone Ridge alumnae are competing together for the first time at the Paris Olympics.

Now years removed from their dominant performances at Stone Ridge, a Catholic school in Bethesda, Maryland, the three world-class athletes will be representing the U.S. at the Olympic Games, which begin with the opening ceremony Friday night.

Gemmell, who is competing in her first Olympics at age 19, will swim in the 200-meter freestyle before joining Ledecky in the 4x200-meter freestyle relay. Ledecky, 27, will also compete in the 400-meter, 800-meter and 1,500-meter freestyle events.

“It’s pretty special, like a once-in-a-lifetime thing,” said Bacon, 21, who will swim the 200-meter backstroke. “Me and Erin had at least a year of crossover at Stone Ridge, but it’s almost like we’re three different generations through Stone Ridge.”

Neither Bacon nor Gemmell overlapped with Ledecky, who graduated in 2015, but they were Ledecky fans long before they became her teammates.

“Erin and Phoebe were both deeply inspired by Katie when they were younger, and the spirit of sisterhood they demonstrate is part of our school culture,” said Catherine Ronan Karrels, Stone Ridge’s head of school. “It’s hard to find words to express how happy it makes me to see three of our alums standing next to each other on the world stage, doing exactly what they love.”

At first glance, Stone Ridge doesn’t present itself as an athletic powerhouse.

The all-girls school has fewer than 1,000 students and prides itself on building leaders, not athletes. Swim coach Bob Walker will be the first to say his program doesn’t shape swimmers into Olympians.

“Our area club teams are some of the best club teams in the country,” Walker said.

He said his program only “borrows” high-level swimmers for three months out of the year. Most swimmers compete year-round with their club team and practice with their high schools in the winter.

“We’ve created an environment that has been successful. If we tell you all the secrets, then the other schools will use those, but I don’t see any of the other private schools producing three Olympians,” Walker said. “So, we’re doing something right here. Or, it might be in the water.”

Student-athletes aren’t given special treatment at Stone Ridge — no scholarships, no extra tutoring, no free passes on academic assignments. The swimmers, even the Olympians, are held to the same standards, though with some flexibility.

Teachers will help students balance their schoolwork, even when the young athletes have to miss class for competitions.

“It’s not every school where you can say you’re going to miss a week at a swim meet and they’ll let you go,” Gemmell said. “But Stone Ridge would do that for us.”

Stone Ridge’s support of its athletes kicked into high gear in 2012 when 15-year-old Ledecky qualified to compete at the London Olympics. Those efforts were amplified as more elite swimmers enrolled at the school.

“We helped them with the incredibly hard balance of training, academics, balancing life, figuring out the next step after high school, helping them launch to where they continue to be successful,” said Andrew Maguire, Stone Ridge’s director of athletics. “I think being in this environment helped them foster that dedication and love for the sport.”

Setting records

When Ledecky graduated from Stone Ridge in 2015, her name dominated the school’s record leaderboard. Freestyle, individual medley, fly, backstroke — it didn’t matter. Still, her top times wouldn’t last forever.

“Records were made to be broken,” Walker said.

Ledecky still holds the school records in the 200-meter and 500-meter freestyle events, but Bacon and Gemmell have added their names to the book.

Gemmell holds the 50-meter freestyle record that once belonged to Ledecky. Bacon surpassed her predecessor in the 200-meter individual medley and the 100-meter backstroke.

Ledecky’s records, which were on display next to the pool, inspired Bacon and Gemmell to push a bit harder.

“It was inspiring to see some times up there that you don’t see often in high school, even at the college level, there were times up there you’d be surprised to see,” Bacon said.

Nowadays, the next generation looks up to Bacon and Gemmell.

“We’ve had a boom in the number of students that take athletics seriously to the next level,” Maguire said. “You see someone achieve something, and you’re like, “Oh, I can go to Stone Ridge and do that, too.’ It’s that modeling piece.”

Senior swimmer Cameron House said the school’s swimming legacy has fueled her efforts in the pool.

“It’s not pressure so much as excitement,” said House, who hopes to compete at the Olympic trials one day. “To have that constant reminder that swimmers from my school have made the Olympic team is such a nice thought to have in the back of my mind, just to help keep me going.”

The fun factor

The club swimming scene in the Washington area can be intense, coach Walker said. The biggest clubs boast hundreds of swimmers on their rosters, each working with coaches to shave seconds off their times. Swimmers could lose their sense of joy.

Competing at Stone Ridge is different.

“Swimming is already important to them,” Walker said. “We ask, ‘How can we make it special?’”

His answer is straightforward: Make it fun.

“Stone Ridge swimming is so much fun and much less stress. There’s such a good balance, and we all come together nicely,” House said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re an Olympian or it’s your first year swimming, we’re all one team.”

Bacon and Gemmell knew they wanted to join Stone Ridge’s swim team early on. They were following in Ledecky’s lane.

“Swimming can be an extremely individualized sport. You’re standing up on that block, and it’s just you and the lane,” Bacon said. “Swimming for Stone Ridge, you got that team aspect. You were standing and doing cheers together, lining the sides of the pool and screaming for your teammate to get to the wall faster.”

School pride and competitive spirit run deep at Stone Ridge. As a high school student, Gemmell decided at an otherwise unremarkable swim meet that her team would break a record.

Stone Ridge already held most of the facility’s pool records.

Some top times, such as the 200-meter freestyle relay, belonged to their rivals at Holton-Arms. Gemmell and her teammates wouldn’t stand for that.

“We decided we needed to get rid of that,” she said.

“My split from that relay is still the fastest I have ever swam a 50-free in my life. Ever,” Gemmell said. “That really shows how determined I was to get that record.”

All together now

This year’s Olympics mark the first time that Ledecky, Bacon and Gemmell will compete together.

Bacon competed with Gemmell at Stone Ridge and alongside Ledecky at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, but the three of them have never been on the same team at the same time.

“We’re finally all here, and it’s really nice to have that sort of sense of familiarity,” Gemmell said. “You’re in a new place with new people, but at the same time, I’m here with people that I’ve known since I was a tiny child. That definitely makes it a lot easier.”

Even in her second Olympics, Bacon finds it hard to believe that swimmers at Stone Ridge see her as an inspiration.

“It’s kind of crazy. I still see myself as the little kid that’s looking up at Katie [Ledecky], even being on two Olympic teams with her,” Bacon said. “But to be able to give back to the community and have little kids running up to me and saying, ‘Good luck,’ or asking for a picture and an autograph, it’s really special.”

While the Stone Ridge alumnae compete in Paris, current Stone Ridge swimmers will be cheering them on as they map out their own Olympic dreams.

“It’s empowering to have three students from our school on the biggest stage,” House said. “It keeps me striving for the next level.”