Katie Ledecky ties record for most gold medals by a female Olympian with 800m freestyle win

NANTERRE, France — Katie Ledecky is rewriting the history books. Again.

On Saturday night, she took gold in the women’s 800-meter freestyle, her fourth consecutive Olympic gold medal in the event. It marks the first time a woman ever won four gold medals in the same event and also brought Ledecky’s career total up to nine Olympic gold medals, which ties Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina for the most all-time by a female Olympian.

Ledecky logged a time of 8:11.04 to clinch her latest gold. Australian Ariarne Titmus (8:12.29) and American Paige Madden (8:13.00) took silver and bronze, respectively.

Ledecky was the heavy favorite in the 800 free, just as she was earlier in the week in the 1500-meter freestyle. The 27-year-old is less dominant in shorter distances, but she remains the world’s greatest distance swimmer.

Coming into Saturday night’s race, Ledecky already owned 29 of the 30 fastest times in world history in the women’s 800 free. And she continues to relish them.

Earlier this week, she reiterated her interest in swimming at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, when she’ll be 31 years old. She loves the training, and she loves the heaviness of the workload.

“To thrive in distance swims, you have to train yourself to focus on nothing, or on something constructive, otherwise your brain will default to a self-preservation cycle of registering that your body hurts — signaling you to stop doing whatever it is that is hurting your body and sending messages to all corners of your mind to quit swimming already! In short, if you can’t harness your thoughts, you become your own worst enemy in the pool,” Ledecky wrote in her memoir.

“Repetition challenges your mental and physical game, and swimming is repetition to the nth degree. But for whatever reason — genetics, luck, stellar coaching, a particular physiology — I’ve been able to embrace the good and tolerate the rest.”

GOAT ACTIVITY. 🇺🇸👑

KATIE LEDECKY WINS HER NINTH GOLD MEDAL! #ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/R6ZGqFyfG9

— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 3, 2024

Ledecky is famously quiet, shy and reserved. The most emotional anyone ever sees her in the pool is after races like Saturday’s. These distances mean a great deal to her, and she means a great deal to their history.

Saturday’s final was Ledecky’s last race of these Paris Games. She heads home with two gold medals, one silver and one bronze. She has now won 14 total Olympic medals across four Games.

Her nine Olympic gold medals are tied for second-most for an American athlete with swimmer Mark Spitz and track and field athlete Carl Lewis. Michael Phelps holds the record for the most Olympic gold medals for an American athlete with 23.

Required reading

(Photo: Quinn Rooney / Getty Images)