The 19-year-old sensation made it five medals – four of them gold – at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium on Friday, as she destroyed the field in world record time, clocking eight minutes and 4.79 seconds to comfortably better her own landmark.
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She already held the world records in the 400-, 800-, and 1,500-meter freestyle coming into the RIo Games and broke her own record in the 400m when she won gold on Sunday.
Katie clocked in at the record-breaking time of 8:04.79, almost two seconds faster than the previous record she set earlier this year.
Ledecky, who shot to prominence with her surprise victory in the 800m free in London four years ago, touched nearly half a length in front of her closest rivals – silver medallist Jazz Carlin of Britain (8:16.17) and bronze medallist Boglarka Kapas of Hungary (8:16.37).
Katie also became the second female swimmer to ever win three individual freestyle events at one Games.
Ledecky’s Rio medal total stands at five, with those four golds (200m, 400m and 800m freestyle, 4x200m freestyle relay) plus a silver in the 4x100m freestyle relay, where she swam the anchor leg. “She’s obviously someone I’m very excited to look forward to watching race”.
“I try not to think about the history much”, Ledecky said. 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. Meyers took the 200, 400 and 800 at Mexico City in 1968.
With the win and defence of her Olympic title, Ledecky’s unbeaten streak moved to a ideal 15 for 15 in individual events at major global meets.
Ledecky is moving to Stanford University later this year. In London, Ledecky was the youngest athlete on the entire US delegation; in Rio, she’s the youngest female swimmer on the team.
With four gold medals at these games and 22 for his career, Phelps has an opportunity to pick up one more before he leaves Rio.
“I hit all my goals right on the nose this week”, she said.
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“This whole day has been kind of insane because it’s all of these little last things that I’ve gotten to do, like my last warmup with the girls at the training pool today”, DiRado said.
