One for the Ages: Katie Ledecky Captivates Rio Fans in World-Record Finale
RIO DE JANEIRO — They knew what was about to happen—the script didn't even need to be read—but still the stadium strained with expectation.
The young and the old stood in front of their seats. A few vendors left their stations and crammed into the aisles. And virtually every man, woman and child wearing red, white and blue at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium on Friday night held aloft their smartphones—500 people frozen in a torch-bearing pose as their cameras rolled to record the moment for posterity.
Then she strode on to the pool deck. Oh my. The crowd unleashed a roar that thundered throughout the arena. It continued for five, 10, 15 seconds as the youngest woman on the U.S. swim team stepped toward the starting blocks.
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They knew what was about to happen: Katie Ledecky was going to win her final race at the Rio Olympics. She had obliterated the field in her qualifier in the 800-meter freestyle with a time of eight minutes, 12.86 seconds, an Olympic record. She was almost seven seconds faster than her closest competitor.
But this—the 800 final—was a where-were-you-when sports moment about to unspool. The greatest female swimmer of her generation—the girl who is only 19, who will move into the dorms at Stanford in the fall, whose best swimming days may be still in front of her—was about to make history.
Then she was off, diving into the pool. The 800 is the longest event in women's Olympic swimming and can be the most tedious to watch, a good time under normal circumstances for fans to head for the concession stand and grab a frango (chicken sandwich) for 15 reals (three dollars).
But no one budged as soon as Ledecky hit the water. This was eight-plus minutes of riveting theater, watching a young woman trying to once again swim 800 meters faster than, well, herself. It wasn't Ledecky versus the field or versus history's best; it was Ledecky versus Ledecky.
Swim people love the 800 because it is the ultimate endurance test, a challenge of how much pain the swimmer is willing to take, a personal battle that is as much mental as it is physical. So what does this say about Ledecky, who positively owns this event? All she had done coming into Friday was record the top 12 marks of all time in the 800.
"Katie is a phenom," said Ryan Lochte, a 12-time Olympic medalist. "She is getting so fast now that she's starting to beat my times, which is crazy. But she just loves the sport. You can see it in the way she trains. She'll continue to break records."
Watching Ledecky swim is hypnotic; stroke after stroke after stroke on Friday night, she hummed like a ruthlessly efficient machine. After five of 16 laps, she was more than three seconds in front of the nearest competitor—a country mile in the world of swimming.
The fans were in a fever. With 12 laps to go, she was 1.4 seconds under world-record pace. She was Secretariat at the Belmont in '73, sprinting away from the field to win by 31 lengths.
With two laps to go, she was 1.93 seconds ahead of the world record. The P.A. announcer yelled, "Let's make some noise for Katie Ledecky!" The command whipped the crowd into a broiling froth.
The field was a half-pool length behind her. Think about that: The best swimmers in the world needed binoculars to see Ledecky in the distance. She touched the wall pad, and her time froze on the scoreboard: 8:04.79—a full 1.89 seconds better than the world record she'd set in Texas back in January. Even janitors, dropping their brooms, were now cheering Ledecky.
The moment was freighted with significance: Ledecky became only the second swimmer to capture gold in the 200, the 400 and the 800 in the same Olympics, duplicating the trifecta that Debbie Meyer pulled off 48 years ago in the 1968 Mexico City Games. Overall in Rio, Ledecky won four gold medals and one silver, setting two world records.
Twenty minutes after the race, she stood in the hallway near the pool. She looked like she could run a marathon. "I hit my goals right on the nose," Ledecky said. "It's been so much fun the last four years. Tonight I felt like I was faster than I've ever been before. I'm so..."
Ledecky had to stop; tears fell like raindrops from her eyes.
It wasn't long before someone asked her about the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. She'll be 23 then—the prime for many female swimmers—and no one who orbits in her universe believes she'll suffer a burnout. After all, she loves swimming the way most people love ice cream.
Nothing is guaranteed in swimming. Ledecky only needs to look at Missy Franklin as a cautionary tale. After winning four golds and a bronze in the 2012 London games as a 17-year-old, Franklin failed to advance to the finals in her two individual events in Rio.
But nobody right now is doubting Katie Ledecky.
"Katie wants people to challenge her. She looks for challenges every day," said Leah Smith, a U.S. teammate who finished the 800 in sixth place, more than 16 seconds behind Ledecky. "The possibilities are endless for her."
"I want to go faster," Ledecky said. "I can set some new goals."
For Katie Ledecky, there is more—so much more—to come.
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