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Like most of Olympics star Katie Ledecky’s performances in the 1,500-meter freestyle, Wednesday’s final was pretty much over before it started. Ledecky established an early lead and steadily lengthened it, the race falling into place the way the rest of her medal performances in distance swimming have done: Ledecky making turns eight or nine meters before anyone else, so far ahead that she appears to be swimming a different race.
Ledecky bested the field for her U.S. record-tying 12th Olympic medal and her eighth gold, also tying a record shared with swimmers Dara Torres, Natalie Coughlin and Jenny Thompson. Her time, 15 minutes and 30.02 seconds, broke her own Olympic record and was a full 10 seconds ahead of silver medalist Anastasiya Kirpichinikova of France.
But she’s not done with the 1,500-meter domination: Ledecky, who is 27, says she plans to compete in the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
“I’ve been consistent over these last few months and last few years in saying that I would love to compete in L.A. and that hasn’t changed,” Ledecky said, via ESPN news services. “That could change. I mean, you never know. So, I really just take it year by year at this point and I really haven’t thought much beyond this week in terms of what my fall is going to look like, what my next year is going to look like.
“But yeah, I don’t feel like I’m close to being finished in the sport yet.”
Up Next: 4×200 Relay, 800-Meter Freestyle
Of course, she is not finished here in Paris 2024 yet. Katie Ledecky will attempt to make medal-winning history on Thursday as part of the U.S. women’s 4×200-meter relay team. The Americans were silver medalists in that event in Tokyo in 2021, losing to China by a margin of 0.4 seconds.
Australia is the favorite in that event, but the U.S. should, at least, come up with a medal that would put Ledecky into the all-time Olympic lead for American women. Ledecky is slated to compete in the 800-meter freestyle, which begins with heats on Friday and wraps up on Saturday.
Ledecky has won the 800-meter free in three straight Olympics, and set the world and Olympic record in the event in Rio in 2016 with a time of 8:04.79. She won the event at the World Championships in 2023, as well.
In other words, it is a good bet that Ledecky will leave Paris not only with a record 14 medals won in the pool, but with at least nine golds—which would move her into an all-time tie with Russian gymnast Larisa Latynina for the most golds won by a woman in any Olympic sport.
Katie Ledecky Hopes to Inspire New Swimmers
Ledecky has already taken her place in history and, from here, is just extending and cementing her legend. She says she does not think about her swims that way, but she did offer credit for her success to the likes of Thompson, Torres and Coughlin, who came before her.
“Each [gold medal] means a lot and each one is challenging in its own way and I try not to really dwell on history or the magnitude of things again, I’ll just let you guys do that,” Ledecky said.
“But yeah, I mean those women that I’m up there with now, they’re people that I’ve looked up to for so many years. I consider many of them friends, supporters, people that I was watching swim when I was just starting out in the sport, so that’s very special to me to share that with them and they definitely inspired me.
Ledecky hopes to bring that same level of inspiration to other swimmers.
“I hope that some little girl out there is watching and will come along and get up there with all of us someday too,” she said
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