Katie Ledecky has put herself in the perfect position to become the first woman ever to win four freestyle golds at a either a World Championships or Olympic Games.
In winning the 200m freestyle Wednesday night, Ledecky earned her third gold medal of the world championships. Despite being heavily out-favorited, Ledecky came back strong in order to win the race in 1:55.16 over world record holder Frederica Pellegrini.
Adding the 200m freestyle gold to her 400 and 1500m freestyle golds that she had already won, Ledecky has one more individual event at these championships to attempt her fourth win: the 800m freestyle. Ledecky is the top seed by sizable amount and the undisputed favorite to win the race.
Just to put into perspective how untouchable Ledecky is in this race, Ledecky started her 1500m freestyle world record swim this week with an 800-meter split faster than any other swimmer besides her has ever swam an individual 800 free. During the last 800-meters of her race, Ledecky came home in 8:14.10 which ties the best non-Ledecky performance ever in the individual 800m freestyle.
It’s almost guaranteed that Ledecky will reach this mark on August eighth when the 800m freestyle is contested.
To put into perspective just how impressive the record will be if Ledecky is able to attain it, some of the best freestyle swimmers of all time never managed to break this record. This lists includes the legendary Janet Evans and Australian Shane Gould. At the 1972 Olympic Games, Gould won four freestyle medals spanning the 100 to 800 freestyles, however finished second in both the 100 and 800 frees to add to her 200 and 400 free golds.
With this mark along with all her career medals, Ledecky will arguably be the greatest distance freestyler of all time. Because much of the sport is centered around the Olympic Gmaes however, Ledecky will need to add some hardware at the 2016 Olympic Games in order to officially be given the title of greatest female distance freestyler ever.
Spellcheck brah! I think she should try the 10k, she would be great.
I hope after Katie wins all her golds and sets all records in the pool, that she will turn her attention to winning the Olympics in the 10K open water swim. Most likely she would win by a huge margin. It would be exciting to watch!
Her’s is a performance for the ages!
I’m in my mid-50’s and I truly believe that Katie Ledecky could well be the last name I ever read as a holder of the women’s 1500 and 800 metre freestyle World Records. I think that when she finally hangs ’em up, her times will be untouchable for at least a generation.
(FYI, I’m planning on being around at least another 40-odd years!)