She came, she swam, she eclipsed all. The 27-year-old American swimmer Katie Ledecky will be leaving Paris two golds, one silver and one bronze richer as the most decorated female Olympian of all time.
The ninth Olympic gold she won in the 800-metre freestyle on Saturday makes her the most gold-bemedalled female Olympian. It’s an honour she shares with the former Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina, who won nine Olympic golds in her heyday from the 1956 Melbourne Games to the 1964 Tokyo Games.
Ledecky, 27, has 14 Olympic medals in all – nine golds, four silvers and a bronze. In Paris, she won a gold medal in the 1,500 metres before winning another gold in the 800 metres; she also picked up silver medals in the 4×200 metres freestyle and the 400 metres freestyle.
C is for Cookie… that’s good enough for me 🥇 https://t.co/TelBDeAzE6
— Katie Ledecky (@katieledecky) August 4, 2024
Fourth Olympic 800-metre gold
In Paris, she won her fourth Olympic 800-metre gold, an event she has won in every Olympics since London in 2012.
But after her runaway win in the 1,500 metres, the 800 metres was a thriller with Australia’s Ariarne Titmus matching her stroke-for-stroke for almost the entire distance.
Ledecky got to the wall first in a time of 8 minutes, 11.04 seconds. Titmus was close behind, clocking 8 minutes, 12.29 seconds.
Paige Madden took bronze for the United States with a time of 8 minutes, 13 seconds.
“I knew it was going to be a tough race,” said Ledecky. “I knew I just needed to stay calm through that and really just try to inch my way forward each lap, and I think I did a pretty good job of that.”
Ledecky matches Michael Phelps’ record
By winning the 800 metres in the Olympics for the fourth time in a row, Ledecky achieved something extraordinary. She is only the second swimmer — and the first woman — to win an event at four straight Summer Games. She joins fellow American Michael Phelps, who won four straight in the men’s 200-metre individual medley.
“Given that Michael’s the only one that’s ever done that, I think that just shows how difficult that is,” said Ledecky. “Especially in the 800. It’s just a lot of miles.”
Ledecky, who first won the 800 metres in the 2012 London Olympics as a 15-year-old, now competes with swimmers who first saw her on TV.
Ariarne Titmus, the 23-year-old Australian who won silver In the 800 metres but defeated Ledecky in the 400 metres (Titimus won gold, Ledecky bronze) first saw her on TV when Ledecky competed in the 2016 Rio Games.
Paige Madden, Ledecky’s 25-year-old American teammate who won bronze in the 800 metres, also remembers watching her on TV. “ Coming full circle from watching her on the TV to now being her peer and her teammate was so special,” she said.
The next Olympics will be held in Los Angeles in four years’ time – and that’s got the 27-year-old American Ledecky thinking.
She is intrigued by the idea of competing in the Summer Games in her homeland.
But she isn’t ready to make any commitments yet.
“I’d love to,” said Ledecky with a smile. “We’ll see, I mean, it’s not easy.