Olympic legend steals the show in a Capitals game

With 8 minutes left in the first, the videoboard cut to Ledecky in the lower bowl, coat zipped over a blue Islanders shirt, and the crowd roared like she had just touched the wall first again.

Her presence in this matchup hit a sweet spot for both fanbases. Ledecky grew up in Bethesda cheering the Capitals, even sitting in the owner's box with Michael Jordan as a kid, thanks to her uncle Jon Ledecky's minority stake in the team.

That same uncle now co-owns the Islanders and their AHL affiliate, which explains the Isles colors under her coat.

It felt fitting that on Sunday the niece watched her childhood team beat her family's team 4-1 while Tom Wilson scored twice and Logan Thompson stopped 30 shots to push Washington to 15-9-2.

Ledecky appears to have made a full holiday trip of it, also hitting the Islanders' Thanksgiving Eve loss to the Boston Bruins, then jumping on MSG's broadcast with Shannon Hogan to call herself a huge Islanders fan who watches every night.

On Instagram, she shared clips from the swing, smiling with Cal Clutterbuck and Matt Martin and posing alongside fellow celebrity fan Ralph Macchio, leaning hard into her Islanders side without ever really closing the door on her Caps roots.

Off the ice, the 28 year old is still stacking accomplishments, living in Gainesville while volunteering as a coach for the Florida Gators and training under Anthony Nesty, the move she made in 2021 to be closer to home and extend her prime.

Her résumé now reads like something out of a video game, four Olympics, 14 medals, 9 of them gold, and 17 world records broken, making her the most decorated American woman in Olympic history.

Caps fans know this is not her first brush with the crest either. For her 16th birthday in 2013 she came back to Washington, got a gold Capitals jersey, met Alex Ovechkin, and admitted Adam Oates was her childhood favorite because they shared a Starbucks.