RIO DE JANEIRO – Katie Ledecky destroyed her own world record in the 800-meter freestyle event Friday, earning her a fourth gold medal at this year’s Summer Olympics in Rio.
She’s now the first female swimmer to sweep the 200, 400 and 800 since Debbie Meyer did it in the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico.
Katie Ledecky is just racing against time in the 800m freestyle.
More swimming: https://t.co/oDAbZW0FKC https://t.co/JiDCun1uI4
— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) August 13, 2016
She posted a time of 8:04:79, which left her a leisurely 12 seconds to wait at the edge of the pool for the next competitor to arrive, silver medalist Jazz Carlin from Great Britain. In third place was Boglarka Kapas, of Hungary.
Ledecky won by such an incredible margin that the images posted on Twitter seemed unreal:
Had fun snapping Katie Ledecky's absurd domination. Follow along if you don't already! https://t.co/Nlyp6bSWpV pic.twitter.com/x56MAki4mi
— Rodger Sherman (@rodger) August 13, 2016
Katie Ledecky, pictured with the 7 next best swimmers in the world. pic.twitter.com/3C08xu9DL7
— Rodger Sherman (@rodger) August 13, 2016
Look how insane this picture is #classbyherself pic.twitter.com/7sEB66Mn6k
— Michele Steele (@ESPNMichele) August 13, 2016
This is just halfway through the race pic.twitter.com/G0Abn6Jf2d
— Christine Brennan (@cbrennansports) August 13, 2016
katie ledecky is ridiculous pic.twitter.com/p5LuhAWKtr
— nick (@nick_pants) August 13, 2016
Great photo by @nytimes with the Ledecky story. Looks like she's going the wrong way. Nope just that far ahead. https://t.co/IEetogR61R
— Russell Blair (@RussellBlairCT) August 13, 2016
I missed Katie Ledecky's race. Is this real? This looks photoshopped. pic.twitter.com/ZfBk5wHvDJ
— Joel (@NobodyEpic) August 13, 2016
