Katie Ledecky Dominates the 800m Freestyle Like No One Else

When one thinks about dominating athletes, Olympic athletes are sometimes out of the public mind in non Olympic years. But there are plenty of non Olympic competitions in those sports, and some of those athletes put on some incredible performances.

A perfect example of this is swimmer Katie Ledecky, who is best known as a 10 time Olympic medalist (seven Gold, three silver) in the last three Olympics. She also has 22 medals (19 Gold, three Silver) in the World Championships dating back to 2013, including five Gold in the 2022 World Championships.

Although she has competed—and won—in several events in distances from 200 meters to 1500, and as a member of relay teams, her signature event is considered to be the 800 meters freestyle, where she burst onto the scene as a 15 year old Gold medalist at the 2012 London Olympics. Earlier this year, she became the first swimmer to win five consecutive world championships in the event. At the U.S. Swimming Championships on July 27th, won the 800m with a time of 8:12.03, 19.89 seconds faster than the second place finisher. Ladecky has a 12 year winning streak in the 800m freestyle, and has the 29 fastest times in history in the event (the winning time at the U.S. championships was the 19th fastest ever). It doesn’t get much more dominating than that.

Barring some catastrophe, Ladecky will try for her fourth Gold in the 800 freestyle in the 2024 Paris Olympics, which begin July 26, 2024. No one has ever won four Golds in an individual event in the Olympics.