9-year-old Katie Ledecky gets Michael Phelps' autograph in adorable viral photo

Before Katie Ledecky, 19, was racing her way to Olympic glory, she was just a regular kid who looked up to another Olympic legend: Michael Phelps.

>> Click here to see the viral photo

ESPN reporter Darren Rovell shared a photo on Twitter, courtesy of Ledecky's family, showing an adorable, bright-eyed Ledecky getting an autograph from Phelps.

Little did she know that in six short years she would be a fellow Olympian – and gold medal winner – with Phelps at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

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This isn’t the first photo that Rovell has shared of a younger Ledecky. In an earlier tweet, he shared a photo of two-time Olympic gold medal winner Michael Jordan holding Ledecky as a toddler, with the caption, “Michael Jordan got 2 gold medals. The little girl he’s holding now has 3. It’s Katie Ledecky.”

>> See the photo here

Ledecky is set to swim again Thursday in a challenge to win her fourth gold medal.

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