American swimmer Katie Ledecky continues to make history. The Maryland native won the 1500-meter freestyle by 10 seconds over the second-placed Anastasiya Kirpichnikova in the Paris Olympics, and social media went bananas.
Ledecky won her eighth gold medal with the victory, via NBC Olympics.
People were shocked by Ledecky's domination of the competition. The Athletic's Zack Pierce even called it “one of the most bada** things in sports,” via his social media.
“Katie Ledecky winning 1500m gold medals with no one else on the screen and then looking back down the pool like, ‘Where you all at?'”
@swimswim48 pointed out a child in the crowd losing it after Ledecky made eye contact with her, via X, formerly known as “Twitter.”
Former Arizona State swimmer Kyle Sockwell also had high praise for Ledecky, via his social media.
“Katie Ledecky. Greatest distance freestyler of all time,” Sockwell said. “Lock it in. Don’t debate it. It’s real. ”
Lastly, influencer Joe Pompliano mentioned how demoralizing the race must have been for Ledecky's competitors, also via his social media.
“Making it to the OLYMPICS only to see Katie Ledecky swimming past you in the opposite direction has to be an incredibly humbling feeling,” he said.
Where does Ledecky's latest victory rank her amongst the greatest Olympians ever?
Katie Ledecky's Olympics resume is as good as it gets
With the victory on Wednesday, Ledecky is now tied with fellow swimmer Jenny Thompson for the most gold medals won by an American woman. Her 12 overall medals are also tied for the most by an American woman.
The Stanford alum's finishing time of 15:30:02 in the 1500-meter race also broke her own record from the Tokyo Olympics (15:35:35). Ledecky hasn't lost the race in 14 years.
23-time gold medalist Michael Phelps even admitted that she's always been better at distance swimming than him, via Essentially Sports's Prasun Chakrabarty.
“Her paces would always be faster,” Phelps said. “So there’s a reason I never swam the mile, and I’m very thankful I didn’t have too many workouts with her because she crushed me every time. But again, this is just her race. This is her race to kind of really just set the pace.”
If Ledecky keeps up this pace, she could leave Phelps in the rearview mirror as well. The 27-year-old will compete in two more races in Paris, and is also expected to swim in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
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