Katie Ledecky has gone viral on more than one occasion. But there was one instance when she broke the internet over something other than her records and Olympic medals. It was the time she posted a video on Twitter showing her prowess as a swimmer.

Katie Ledecky’s balancing maneuver

It is extremely difficult to keep the body aligned when swimming freestyle. This is due to the rotation of the lower torso between strokes. Therefore, it requires tremendous skills to balance anything over the head while engaging in freestyle.

The 7-time Olympic gold medalist was able to achieve just that, and better still she captured the act on video.

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The three-time Olympian posted a video of her swimming while balancing a glass of chocolate milk over her head. And what’s more, she managed to keep the glass balanced while covering the entire length of the pool.

Ledecky did this as part of an ad for the Got Milk campaign. She further challenged others to take part in it. Fans of Katie were left awestruck by this balancing act and she became a viral sensation overnight. The challenge began trending on TikTok immediately.

The trend requires a person to balance a glass of milk while performing an activity without spilling its contents.

Currently, Katie is the world record holder in the 400m, 800m, and 1,500m freestyle events making her one of the most decorated swimmers in the US.

But she jokingly dubbed this activity, “Possibly one of the best swims of my career!”

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Many tried to recreate the act while doing various tasks; some succeeded while many failed, albeit with hilarious results. But overall it was a fun challenge and kept netizens occupied.

Why is it challenging?

Swimming is a sport that requires core strength to help keep the body aligned as much as possible. Without a strong core, a swimmer’s torso would start to sway, usually near the hips, along with the motion of the water.

Due to alternate forward thrust of each arm, this issue is fairly common in freestyle. It is otherwise known as snaking. This leads to lesser efficiency in strokes, and swimmers have to cope by putting more exertion on the body, which in turn would require more energy to cover a distance. This is especially true for long-course swimmers.

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The hip rotation technique is another method swimmers implement to discourage snaking. This technique allows a swimmer to kick sideways that in turn helps mitigate the body from swaying.

Whichever technique a swimmer may use, there will always be movement when moving through the water. Therefore, the swiftness with which Ledecky pulled off the feat is difficult to achieve.