800 metres Freestyle, Women

Katie Ledecky was the three-time defending gold medalist, and was the consensus choice as the greatest female swimmer of all-time. She had set the 16 fastest times in the event and had set five world records, the last coming in her gold medal performance at Rio 2016.

But there was now a slight chink in her mantle of distance swimming invincibility. She had not been defeated at 800 metres from 2010 until February 2024, when she lost to Canada’s Summer McIntosh at a race in Orlando, Florida, but McIntosh had a full schedule at Paris 2024 and elected not to race the 800 freestyle. Ledecky’s biggest challenge would again come from Australian Ariarne Titmus, the silver medalist at Tokyo 2020, and the two-time gold medalist in the 400 freestyle, having handled Ledecky easily in the 400 on the opening night of swimming at Paris 2024.

Ledecky qualified the fastest, with 8:16.62, followed by her teammate Paige Madden, and Titmus in third, although ominously more than three seconds slower than Ledecky. The final was somewhat close, as Ledecky went to the lead on the first lap. She would never be headed, but Titmus was right with her through 500 metres. Ledecky was too strong over the last half of the race and pulled away to win over Titmus by 1¼ seconds, in 8:11.04. Madden took the bronze with a PR, taking more than five seconds off her best time.

This was Ledecky’s final race of the Paris Olympics. She finished it with 14 Olympic medals, the most ever by a female swimmer, and second all-time only to Michael Phelps’ 28, although tied with Australia’s Emma McKeon, who took home three relay medals from Paris. In all Olympic sports, Ledecky and McKeon trailed only Phelps, Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina with 18, Soviet gymnast Nikolay Andrianov with 15, and Norwegian cross-country skier Marit Bjørgen, also with 15. In Paris, German equestrian dressage rider Isabell Werth also equaled Ledecky and McKeon by winning her 13th and 14th Olympic medals.

Ledecky’s ninth gold medal moved her to second all-time at the Olympics, in any sport, trailing Phelps’ 23, and equalling Latynina, Paavo Nurmi (FIN - ATH), Mark Spitz (USA - SWM), and Carl Lewis (USA - ATH). In Paris, American Caeleb Dressel joined that group with two relay golds.

Ledecky’s fourth consecutive victory in the 800 freestyle had only been matched in individual Olympic swimming events by Michael Phelps in the 200 IM, from 2004-2016. In all Olympic sports, this had been done previously only by Phelps, Al Oerter (USA - ATH) in the men’s discus throw from 1956-1968, Carl Lewis in the men’s long jump from 1984-1996, Danish sailor Paul Elvstrøm in one-person monotype from 1948-1960, and Cuban Greco-Roman heavyweight wrestler Mijaín López from 2008-2020.

It should be noted that López would win his fifth consecutive heavyweight Greco-Roman wrestling gold medal in Paris, the first time that had ever been done in an individual event; and American shooter Vincent Hancock won his fourth skeet shooting gold medal in Paris, uniquely not in consecutive Olympics.