Ledecky sets world record in 800 freestyle

RIO DE JANEIRO-Katie Ledecky of the United States destroyed the field in the 800 metres freestyle on Friday, breaking her own world record to complete a rare Olympic swimming treble.

The 19-year-old American swimmer has now claimed four gold medals during the Rio Olympics.

Ledecky’s third individual freestyle gold made her the first woman to win the 200-, 400- and 800-meter freestyle races since American Debbie Meyer accomplished the feat in 1968 at the Games in Mexico City.

Ledecky won her fourth gold medal in Rio in a time of 8 minutes 4.79 seconds in a typically overwhelming performance.

Ledecky, who has three gold medals and a silver already, will likely be racing against herself Friday night.

The other US swimmers were Stanford alum Maya DiRado, who added a gold to go with her silver and bronze in the two individual medleys, and Leah Smith, who picked up her second medal of the Games after earning bronze in the 400 free.

“The preparation is tremendous, and the preparation that she’s done for a long period of time”, he said after she won the 200 freestyle in Rio on Tuesday night.

“I hit all my goals right on the nose this week”, Ledecky said.

She won the race at London 2012 as a 15-year-old and she was a class apart in her heat here, touching the wall almost seven seconds clear of her rivals and then complaining she had not had enough sleep to be at her best. Since the London Games, she has lowered the world record in the event four times – by nearly eight seconds. And with silver in the 4×100 free relay and gold in the 4×200 relay, she was well on her way to making Olympic history.

Just how fast was Ledecky’s swim?

When she won the gold in this event in 2012 in London, as a 15-year-old, she touched the wall in 8:14.63.

Ledecky anchored a squad that included Allison Schmitt, Leah Smith and Maya DiRado to a win over Australia, the only other country to triumph in the event at the Summer Games. “The way she swims is very much the way I tried to swim”. “That was so much fun”. At times, she was more than a body length ahead of world record pace.