PARIS: American superstar Katie Ledecky powered to a fourth straight 800m freestyle title on Saturday to claim a ninth career Olympic gold, equalling the most ever won by a woman athlete in any sport.
The 27-year-old hit the wall in 8min 11.04sec ahead of Australia's Ariarne Titmus (8:12.29) and the United States' Paige Madden (8:13.00)
The win was her 14th Olympic medal, with the victory at La Defense Arena re-rewriting the history books yet again.
A ninth gold drew her level with former Soviet-era artistic gymnast Larisa Latynina as the only women ever to collect that many titles.
The greatest distance swimmer the sport has seen, she had already won the 1500m and earned silver in the 4x200m freestyle relay and bronze in the 400m freestyle in Paris.
No other woman swimmer has won gold at four different Olympics.
Ledecky set off fast and was marginally ahead of Titmus at the first turn, with the Australian staying on her shoulder for 600m until the American started pulling clear.
Madden made a late charge but Titmus managed to hold on for silver as Ledecky surged home.
Ledecky went into the race as the overwhelming favourite with the 16 fastest 800m times ever recorded, including the world record.
She has dominated distance swimming for more than a decade, winning her first gold medal aged 15 in the 800m free at the London Games in 2012.
She repeated in Rio four years later, when her 800m triumph was part of a four-gold haul that included the 200m and 400m free.
At the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympics, Ledecky grabbed a third straight 800m free gold and won the 1500m free when it was added to the Olympic women's programme for the first time.--AFP