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 greats Jenny Thompson, Natalie Coughlin, and Dara Torres for the most medals all time (12) by any U.S. woman in history.
In a surprise and sign of what was to come, Coughlin was on hand to officially open the swim session with the Les trois coups.
The race started as planned, at the 500m mark she was .11 ahead of her own world record. She took over the world record in 2013 and has reset it another five times. At the 500m the race for second was exciting. France’s Anastasia Kirpichnikova, Italy’s Simona Quadarella and Germany’s Isabel Gose were in a virtual three-way tie.
With 400m remaining, she was behind her world record pace by six seconds but as still ahead of the Olympic record pace. In a show of true dominance, she consistently averaged lap times in the 31 second range. 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 and her next opportunity for a 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.
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