Heading into Friday, Katie Ledecky had already claimed two individual gold medals at the Rio Olympics. In the women’s 800m freestyle final, she put on one of the more dominating performances you’ll ever see in the pool for her third.
Not only did the 19-year-old win the gold medal in world record time, she finished over 11 seconds ahead of Jazz Carlin, who took home the silver.
#TeamUSA Katie Ledecky won the 800m Freestyle FINAL by 11.38 seconds #Rio2016 pic.twitter.com/KtbmaRtTIN
— Keith (@RespeckTheStar) August 13, 2016
Ledecky was so far ahead of the other swimmers at times it looked as though she was the only one in the pool, just training, not participating in an actual competition with others trying to win as well. Here she is by herself at the finish.
.@katieledecky beat the World Record… owned by Katie Ledecky.#WorldRecord #Rio2016 pic.twitter.com/cS0khMw0zm
— NBC Olympics (@NBCOlympics) August 13, 2016
The New York Times created a graphic showing all 16 lengths of the pool required for the 800 meters and how Ledecky pulled away from everyone else.
?? @katieledecky broke her own world record, and won by over 11 secs, in the 800m freestyle https://t.co/sGZvx9919C pic.twitter.com/lB0tuhe2uI
— NYT Graphics (@nytgraphics) August 13, 2016
There’s dominance and there’s what Katie Ledecky did on Friday, which was unbelievable. Ledecky has also won gold medals in Rio in the 200m and 400m freestlye events as well as the 4×200 freestyle relay. She has a silver medal from the 4×100 freestyle relay.
Photo via: Robert Hanashiro – USATSI
