Ledecky led from the start to clock eight minutes, 4.79 seconds, beating her previous mark of 8:06.68 set in Austin, Texas in January.
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The 19-year-old from suburban Washington, D.C. capped off one of the greatest performances in Olympic history with her fourth gold medal and second world record, shattering her own mark in the 800-meter freestyle Friday night.
Katie Ledecky came into the Rio Olympics facing enormous expectations. France’s Florent Manaudou finished second in 21.41 and American Nathan Adrian took bronze. Ledecky has now broken her own world record six times in the 800-meter freestyle. But as her sweep of individual events in Rio showed, that polish is now shining brilliantly.
It’s fitting that Ledecky closed out these games with the 800: Back in 2012, it was her shocking win in this event (at age 15, she beat then-world record holder Rebecca Adlington) that announced Ledecky’s presence as a swimmer with superstar potential.
Sixteen years after winning a historic gold medal at the Sydney Games, Antony Ervin was back atop the podium.
Meyer has been rooting hard for Ledecky all week, and she’s traded texts with Ledecky’s mother, Mary Gen, throughout the meet. “The Olympics are the pinnacle of our sport and after you have to wait another four years to have that moment and I just wanted to enjoy it all and put my very best swim out there”. “I’ve had a lot of fun this week, not only in the pool but with my teammates and the memories mean more than the medals to me here”, she said. I love seeing that drive. I love seeing the way she attacks things. Ledecky’s parents believe Meyer inspired Ledecky to add the 200 free to her program, a challenging race for, at that point, a mostly distance swimmer.
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She grabbed hold of it Friday night, etching her name into the record books.
