800 metres Freestyle, Women

Katie Ledecky had won the gold medal in this event 2012 and 2016, and had won the World Championship in 2013, 2015, 2017, and 2019. Normally a dominant favorite, she had shown some semblance of normality here, as Ariarne Titmus had outkicked her to win the 400 freestyle and was expected to challenge Ledecky over 800 as well.

Ledecky led the qualifying, followed by her teammate Katie Grimes, and then Italy’s Simona Quadarella, as Titmus surprisingly was back in sixth place, but comfortably made the final.

Ledecky took out the lead in the final from the beginning and was never really challenged. Titmus held second throughout but Ledecky always had a lead of at least a body length. Titmus was known for her finish, but she could only make marginal inroads into Ledecky’s pace on the final lap, as Ledecky won by 1.26 seconds in 8:12.57. Behind the two leaders Quadarella and Grimes exchanged third and fourth, with Quadarella starting to pull away from Grimes in the last half of the race to get the bronze medal.

This was Ledecky’s third consecutive gold medal in the event, making her only the third woman to three-peat in a swimming event at the Olympics, after Australian Dawn Fraser in the 100 freestyle in 1956-64 and Hungary’s Krisztina Egerszegi in the 200 backstroke in 1988-96. On the men’s side it had only been done by Michael Phelps – in three different events.