Katie Ledecky produced a scintillating swim to break yet another world record on Saturday, this time in the women’s 800m freestyle, lowering the mark she set almost a decade ago at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
She recorded a time of 8:04.12 at the TYR Pro Swim Series Fort Lauderdale, shaving six-tenths of a second off her previous record and finishing almost 20 seconds ahead of her closest competitor. She now holds the top ten times ever recorded in the event.
For almost 13 years, Ledecky has dominated long-distance freestyle swimming, setting record after record that no one else can touch, often competing against only herself.
But it had been seven years since the American’s last world record; her powers were waning, people presumed, leaving her still able to collect titles but without setting the impossibly fast times that defined her earlier career.
Still, her recent results suggested Ledecky was close to reaching those heights again. On Wednesday, she set the second fastest ever time in the women’s 1500m freestyle, completing the distance in 15:24.51, before her world record on Saturday.
“I can’t stop smiling, it’s been like that all week though, so it’s not really new,” she said after the race, per USA Swimming. “It’s been so many years in the making to do it tonight. It’s been an incredible night.”
“The crowd was amazing tonight; I couldn’t have done it without that. I flipped at the 750, and it was loud in here, and I just told myself I’m not letting this opportunity go to waste and started sprinting.”
As Ledecky touched the wall and looked up at the screen to see her time, the crowd erupted, knowing she had broken the record. A fraction of a second later, Ledecky celebrated as well, smashing the water with her hands and raising a fist in triumph.
And on the same day, her compatriot Gretchen Walsh became the first woman to complete the 100m butterfly in less than 55 seconds, recording a time of 54.60 to lower the world record she set earlier that day.
Ledecky noted after her own record that “tonight is the first (record) I’ve done when another American has done it. Hats off to Gretchen for getting us rolling this morning and starting a world record party.”
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