At the 2024 Paris Games there might not have been an event with a more obvious favorite than Katie Ledecky and the women’s 1500m freestyle. The long-distance specialist owns the 19 fastest times in the event’s history and won the 1500m in its debut in Tokyo. In a race that often goes viral for photos of Ledecky being so far in front of her competitors that they’re out of frame, it wasn’t a question of if she’d win the race but by how much.
Ledecky finished with a time of 15:30.02, an Olympic record and ten seconds better than the next finisher, for her eighth career Olympic gold medal to tie swimming great Jenny Thompson for the most Olympic gold medals by an American women. She also tied Thompson, Natalie Coughlin, and Dara Torres for the most medals all time (12) by any U.S. woman in history.
The distance swimmer reflected on the accomplishment after the race. "I try not to think about history very much," she said, "I know those names, those people I'm up with. They're people I looked up to when I first started swimming. So it's an honor to be named among them. I'm grateful for them inspiring me. There are so many great swimmers that have helped me get to this moment."
In a surprise and sign of what was to come, Coughlin was on hand to officially open the swim session with "les trois coups" (a ritual taking place before events at Paris 2024).
The race started as planned — at the 500m mark Ledecky was .11 seconds ahead of her own world record. She took over the world record in 2013 and has reset it another five times.
At the 500m point, the race for second was exciting though. France’s Anastasia Kirpichnikova, Italy’s Simona Quadarella and Germany’s Isabel Gose were in a virtual three-way tie.
With 400m remaining, Ledecky had fallen behind her world-record pace by six seconds but was still ahead of the Olympic-record pace. In a show of true dominance, she consistently averaged lap times in the 31-second range. Meanwhile, Kirpichnikova held a comfortable second place while Quadarella and Gose battled for bronze.
As the bell for the final lap rang, Ledecky was well out in front, the only question was could she earn a new Olympic record. The crowd was roaring for the distance great as she touched the wall. The 15:30.02 time was her eighth-fastest time in her career at the distance.
In the end, France’s Kirpichnikova held on for silver while Germany’s Gose claimed bronze with a time of 15:41.16.
Ledecky already won bronze in the women’s 400m freestyle. Her next opportunity to earn a medal will be in the women's 4x200m freestyle relay on Thursday. If she accomplishes that, it would be her 13th career Olympic medal, which would make her the most decorated female U.S. Olympian in history. She would only be behind Michael Phelps (28) overall.
Ledecky's next opportunity for an individual medal will be the women’s 800m freestyle. The preliminary heats take place on Friday, August 2nd, with the final set for Saturday, August 3rd.