Swimmer Katie Ledecky Crushes Her Competition in the 800-Meter Freestyle

At only age 19, swimmer Katie Ledecky has won gold again in the 800-meter freestyle. Her finishing time: 8:04.79. And this year, she finished 11.38 seconds before the silver medal winner, Jazz Carlin of Britain, touched the wall. She was about half a pool length ahead of her competition (see image above) — and that is amazing for an eight-minute endurance event. For reference, Jazz beat the third place finisher, Boglárka Kapás of Hungary, by two tenths of a second.

Oh, and Katie also broke her own world record for the event too, shaving a little over two seconds off her fastest time. This is Ledecky's fourth gold medal win for these Summer games. Katie, who heads off to Stanford in the Fall, was tearful and ebullient on the podium, which is completely understandable given her amazing performance.