Her nearest competitor, Great Britain’s Jazz Carlin, earned the silver medal nearly five seconds behind Ledecky. Plus, she set world records in the 800m and 1500m, earning gold medals in both.
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When Ledecky saw the time – 3 minutes, 56.46 seconds – she let out an uncharacteristic scream and pumped her right fist. I can’t believe it, I am so happy.
Ledecky will also compete in the 200-meter freestyle on Monday and the 800-meter freestyle on Thursday. In her career, Ledecky, who beat Rebecca Adlington to gold in the 800m freestyle in London 2012, has now swum in 13 individual finals and never lost.
Ledecky, who had come close to the record in the morning heats, led from start to finish to set a new mark of three minutes, 56.46 seconds, shaving 1.91 seconds off the previous best she set in Australia two years ago.
These two faced off for bronze in London four years ago, with del Potro winning.
Six swimming world records have now fallen in two days of competition, and the United States moved level with Australia on two gold medals each.
USA’s Katie Ledecky celebrates after she broke the World Record in the Women’s 400m Freestyle Final during the swimming event at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium in Rio de Janeiro on August 7, 2016.
Britain’s Jazz Carlin claimed a superb silver medal in the 400 metres freestyle final on Sunday night. She just missed her mark of 3:58.37 set in 2014.
After the powerful US team was shut out Saturday and through the first two events Sunday, Ledecky got the Americans on the top step of the podium.
“By the time I got back to the village I got to go straight to my room and get to bed”, she said.
What’s scary is Ledecky is just warming up. Ledekcy, 19, anchored the women’s 4×100 freestyle relay that won a silver medal.
The team of Jimmy Feigen, Ryan Held, Blake Pieroni and Anthony Ervin posted the second-fastest time in the prelims at 3:12.38.
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With the loss, Djokovic is still left seeking his first Olympic gold medal. “I didn’t realise it was a world record”, Sjostrom said.
