Katie Ledecky Smashes World Record in the 800-Meter Freestyle

In 1968, a teenager in North Dakota watched transfixed as Debbie Meyer won the 200-, 400- and 800-meter freestyle races at the Mexico City Olympics. The next time the teenager, already a competitive swimmer, got in the pool, she cut through the water repeating to herself, “I am Debbie Meyer.”

That teenager would grow up to become the mother of Katie Ledecky, who on Friday night became the first Olympian since Meyer to complete the 200, 400 and 800 trifecta. Ledecky lowered her seven-month-old world record in the 800 freestyle by two seconds with a time of 8 minutes 04.79 seconds. Her 400 split of 4:01.98 would have won the bronze in the 400 final last Sunday.

She finished 11.38 seconds ahead of the runner-up, Jazz Carlin of Britain, who clocked an 8:16.17. That was two-tenths of a second better than the bronze medalist, Boglarka Kapas of Hungary. The slim margin separating second and third threw into sharp relief the dominance of Ledecky, who owns the 13 fastest performances in history. Her 400 split of 4:01.98 would have won the bronze in the 400 final last Sunday.

Four years ago, a 15-year-old Ledecky won the 800 freestyle in 8:14.63. She joined Hungary’s Krisztina Egerszegi as the only swimmers to win gold medals in consecutive Olympics as teenagers. Ledecky started crying as she talked about completing this Olympics cycle by hitting all her goal times.

“It’s the end of a four-year journey,” Ledecky said, adding, “It’s been so fun.”

Before the Games began, Ledecky was asked if breaking the eight-minute barrier was within her reach. She said she did not believe so. “I don’t know if that’s achievable,” Ledecky said. And then, almost as an afterthought, she added, “I still say anything is possible.”

Ledecky did not have the best night’s sleep on Thursday. She said she woke up with a sore throat that she kiddingly blamed on her roommate, Simone Manuel. After Manuel’s upset victory in the 100-meter freestyle, Ledecky stayed awake to congratulate her. Manuel said she was shocked when she cracked open the bedroom door around two in the morning and was swallowed in an embrace by Ledecky.

“She said I’m not going to sleep until I give you a hug,” Manuel said. “That really meant a lot to me.”

Ledecky, 19, typically expresses more excitement about other people’s success than her own. After her U.S. teammate Leah Smith finished the 800 in 8:20.95 for sixth, Ledecky dolphin-swam her way over to Smith’s lane and embraced her.

“Normally I think a lot of people have to be super dominant, but Katie wants other U.S. girls to be up there on the podium with her,” Smith said. “She wants challenges. She’s always setting high goals for herself. I think it’s amazing you can want someone who’s racing you to go low.”

Ledecky’s coach, Bruce Gemmell, isn’t surprised. “Her biggest internal motivator is getting better, it’s raising the bar,” he said about Ledecky. “It’s not winning an Olympic medal, it isn’t setting a world record, it wasn’t becoming the best in the world. It’s about setting goals and going after them.”

Where does Ledecky go from here? To Stanford, to begin her freshman year, which she put off to train for the Meyer milestone.

Her growing legion of admirers includes Kevin Durant, who asked to take a photograph with her after her 200 freestyle victory, and the Olympian with the most medals of all, Michael Phelps.