Katie Ledecky is the third swimmer and first woman to win four individual gold medals at the World Championships.
On Aug. 8, 2015, the great Ledecky finished another perfect World Championships with an 800m freestyle title, becoming the first swimmer to sweep the 200m, 400m, 800m and 1500m frees at a single Worlds in Kazan, Russia, on Saturday.
She did so in her usual fashion, by breaking one of her world records. Ledecky clocked 8:07.39 to win by 10.26 seconds. She chopped 3.61 seconds off her 800m free world record from 2014 of 8:11.00.
“I kind of figured the next step would be under 8:10, kind of thought it would be 8:08,” Ledecky told media in Kazan. “So to see the 8:07 was great. It’s August 8th, I was swimming the 800 and, believe it or not, it would’ve been my grandpa’s 88th birthday.”
Ledecky’s reaction was to slam her right arm into the pool twice while other swimmers were still stroking into the finishing wall.
Why so excited?
“Just a combination of things, being done, swimming so well and finishing on a good note,” Ledecky said. “Couldn’t be happier with how that swim went or how this whole week went.”
Ledecky, coming off a high school graduation and without a driver’s license, also became the third swimmer to win four individual gold medals at a single Worlds. She joined Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte in that category.
“I didn’t realize how fast Katie was going, 8:07 is absolutely incredible,” said Jaz Carlin, the British bronze medalist 10.76 seconds behind Ledecky and six years older than Ledecky, on Eurosport. “She’s getting faster every time she races. She’s younger than me. She’s quite a bit younger. So, obviously, yeah, it’s tough. But I think it’s definitely given us girls something to aim for. And it’s really moving the distance events along. And obviously she’s won the 200 now as well, so we all need to work on our speed as well.”
Ledecky has entered 10 Olympic and World Championships events over 2012, 2013 and 2015 and won gold in all of them.
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