Olympian Katie Ledecky of Bethesda Dives Into Professional League

BETHESDA, MD — A new swimming league is coming to D.C. — and Katie Ledecky, the Bethesda-raised U.S. Olympic swimmer, will be one of the league's ambassadors.

The International Swimming League announced it will debut this year as the first professional sports league for elite swimming. In October, the league will host multiple U.S. and European-based competitions — all leading up to a global championship at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.

Ledecky will join Americans Nathan Adrian and Ryan Murphy as ambassadors for ISL. The home-grown, six-time Olympic medalist will also compete in meets, according to The Washington Post.

I’m excited to announce that I’ll be serving as an ambassador for @SwimISL, the world’s first professional swimming league! pic.twitter.com/aKmBK3olyD
— Katie Ledecky (@katieledecky) April 9, 2019

"I'm really looking forward to seeing what this new league, this new series of racing, will do for our sport," Ledecky told The Post, "especially in the lead-up and the follow-up to [the] 2020 [Olympics] in Tokyo."