Legendary Olympians Simone Biles and Katie Ledecky weighed in on why nervousness before competitions is key to success

• Two of the most decorated Olympians in American history — gymnast Simone Biles and swimmer Katie Ledecky — said they always get nervous before competition.
• During Visa and Capital One's "Gold Medal Goals" event, Biles said "if you're not nervous, you're not ready."
• Ledecky added that "nerves signal how much you care."

Even superstar athletes still get nervous, according to two of the most iconic Olympians on the planet.

Gymnast Simone Biles and swimmer Katie Ledecky own a combined nine Olympic gold medals between them and know a thing or two about what it takes to win. And during Visa and Capital One's "Gold Medal Goals" event, the American pair suggested that nerves are instrumental to success.

"I still get nervous before every single competition," Biles said. "I feel like if you're not nervous, you're not ready."

It's safe to say Biles is almost always ready before she competes. The most decorated gymnast - man or woman - in World Championship history, Biles stole the show at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. The then-19-year-old won gold in floor and vault events as well as both the individual and team all-around. She took third on the balance beam as well.

But if the sheer volume of victories Biles has amassed is impressive, then the fashion in which she's attained them can only be described as staggering. At the 2019 World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany, the 4-foot-8 virtuoso walked away with five gold medals, performing skills her opponents couldn't dream of pulling off.

She won each of her individual events by more than a 0.5-point margin. In a sport that is typically decided by tenths or hundredths of a point, as The New Yorker's Eren Orbey points out, Biles' comparably astronomical margins of victory would have been unimaginable before she first joined the US women's national team in 2013.

And even she still gets nervous - every single time.

Ledecky, meanwhile, is one of very few athletes alive who can rival Biles' dominance in her respective sport. Like Biles, Ledecky is 23 years old. And like Biles, Ledecky has more World Championship gold medals than any other woman in the history of her sport. She's broken 14 world records in her career and currently holds the records in the 400-meter, 800-meter, and 1,500-meter freestyle events.

She gets nervous, too.

"You want it to go right, so you get nervous," Ledecky said. "It's natural."

It nearly always goes right for Ledecky, who is often dubbed "The Next Michael Phelps." And though chasing Phelps' legacy as the most decorated Olympian of all time is a tall task, to say the least, the recent Stanford graduate has the ambition to work towards glory at the absolute highest levels. She's added even more events to her already jam-packed slate for the Tokyo Olympics and has indicated that she is "definitely aiming for gold in the 200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m individual freestyle events as well as the 800m free relay."

And even so, fans and competitors alike can expect Ledecky to feel the pressure before stepping to the block in Japan next summer.

"The nerves signal how much you care about what you're about to do," Ledecky said. "And how much you have put in to get to that moment."

• Read more:
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• The best competitive swimmer on the planet spent 3 months training in a backyard pool while training for the Olympics
• Simone Biles is working on a feat so unprecedented in women's gymnastics that there's currently no way to score it
• Shock, disappointment, anxiety, relief: As the original 2020 Olympics dates pass, Team USA's top competitors reveal how they're coping with the year-long delay