U.S. swimmer Katie Ledecky reminded the world that two American Olympic legends are competing in this year’s games in Paris. After the world saw gymnast Simone Biles dominate on Tuesday, Ledecky won her eighth gold medal in her career on Wednesday.
Ledecky turned in a masterful performance in Wednesday’s 1,500-meter freestyle competition. She set an Olympic record, finishing the event in 15:30.02, an astounding ten seconds of her next closest competitors, France’s Anastasiia Kirpichinikova, who finished in 15:40.35, and Germany’s Isabel Gose, who finished in 15:41.16.
The victory puts Ledecky in elite company. It was her 12th Olympic medal overall, which tied her with former U.S. swimmers Natalie Coughlin, Jenny Thompson, and Dara Torres for the most medals ever awarded to a female swimmer.
“Each means a lot, and each one is challenging in its own way, and I try not to really dwell on history or the magnitude of things again; I’ll just let you guys do that,” the Olympic champion said. “But yeah, I mean those women that I’m up there with now, they’re people that I’ve looked up to for so many years. I consider many of them friends, supporters, people that I was watching swim when I was just starting out in the sport, so that’s very special to me to share that with them, and they definitely inspired me, so I hope that some little girl out there is watching and will come along and get up there with all of us someday too.”
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This is Ledecky’s second medal at the Paris Games. She won a bronze medal in the 400m freestyle on July 27. Ledecky is expected to compete in two more swimming events at these Olympics, the 800m freestyle and the 4x200m relay. Moreover, Ledecky, 27, said she has no plans of slowing down or retiring after these games. She said she plans to compete again in the 2028 Olympics, when the games will be in Los Angeles.
“I’ve been consistent over these last few months and last few years in saying that I would love to compete in L.A. and that hasn’t changed,” Ledecky said. “That could change. I mean, you never know. So, I really just take it year by year at this point and I really haven’t thought much beyond this week in terms of what my fall is going to look like, what my next year is going to look like. But yeah, I don’t feel like I’m close to being finished in the sport yet.”