Swimming · 2016 · Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Ledecky's Rio Domination
Katie Ledecky wins four gold medals at the Rio Olympics, including an 800m freestyle victory by more than eleven seconds, a margin almost unheard of at the elite level.
4
Golds, Rio 2016
11.38 seconds
800m freestyle winning margin
2 (400m, 800m freestyle)
World records set
Katie Ledecky entered the 2016 Rio Olympics as the dominant force in women's distance freestyle swimming, and left with four golds and a silver, winning the 200m, 400m, and 800m freestyle individually along with the 4x200m freestyle relay, and breaking her own world records in both the 400m and 800m along the way.
The 800m freestyle final was the starkest illustration of her dominance: Ledecky won by more than eleven seconds, a gap so large that the silver medallist had already finished and the broadcast camera had time to show Ledecky's face in close-up celebration before the rest of the field arrived. Margins of that size are almost unheard of in Olympic swimming finals.
Ledecky's Rio performance cemented her as one of the most dominant swimmers, male or female, in the sport's history, a level of superiority in distance freestyle events that swimming analysts routinely compared to the greatest single-sport dominance in any Olympic discipline.
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