USA’s Katie Ledecky makes Olympic history with gold in 1500m freestyle

Katie Ledecky has become the first female swimmer to win gold medals at four different Olympics after retaining her title in the women’s 1500m freestyle with another commanding performance on Wednesday night.

The 27-year-old American, widely regarded as the greatest female distance swimmer of all time, touched first in 15min and 30.02sec, an Olympic record, before a boisterous crowd in the Paris suburbs. France’s Anastasiya Kirpichnikova claimed the silver (15:40.35), while third place went to Germany’s Isabel Gose (15:41.16). The only other swimmer to break 16 minutes was Simona Quadarella of Italy (15:44.05), who faded in a hard-fought duel for the bronze.

The question entering the race was not whether Ledecky would win – the Maryland native is undefeated at the distance in her professional career – but by how much. She’d won her preliminary heat on Tuesday by more than a half-lap ahead of Simona Quadarella of Italy, after an even more jaw-dropping performance at last month’s US trials, where she won by 20 seconds over her closest rival.

Her eighth career Olympic title moves her level with American Jenny Thompson’s all-time record for most women’s swimming golds. Ledecky has another medal chance in the 800m freestyle at the weekend. Wednesday’s gold was also her 12th Olympic medal of any color, tying her with Thompson, Dara Torres and Natalie Coughlin for the most ever by a female swimmer from any country.

Ledecky has broken the world record on six different occasions at the distance, where she now holds the 20 fastest times in history. Her best time is more than 18 seconds better than the next fastest female, Denmark’s Lotte Friis. Overall she has improved on the previous all-time mark, set by the American Kate Ziegler in 2007, by more than 22 seconds.

Ledecky’s all-time medal haul would be even higher if the women’s 1500m freestyle had been added to the Olympic program sooner than three years ago, when the American won by more than a four-second margin on the event’s debut, in Tokyo. Now she’s a back-to-back Olympic champion in the event, extending her own record for a woman with a seventh individual gold.

Earlier on Wednesday night, Torri Huske of the United States earned her third medal of the Paris Games with a silver in the 100m freestyle behind Sweden’s Sarah Sjöström, who, at 30, became the second-oldest woman to win an individual Olympic swimming gold after Inge de Bruijn of the Netherlands in 2004.

Huske had already won gold in the 100m butterfly and a silver in the 4x100m free at these Olympics.