Katie Ledecky sets Olympic record in 1500-meter freestyle to tie Jenny Thompson for most women's gold medals

United States swimmer Katie Ledecky has been unmatched over the past decade in the pool, and she set herself atop the leaderboards for women’s medal winners at the Olympics with a dominant swim in the 1500 meter freestyle race in Paris.

With the win, Ledecky won her 12th overall medal and her eighth gold. Both of those marks tie her with fellow American Jenny Thompson in the No. 1 spot for both total medals and gold medals for women swimmers. They also both have the most gold medals for any American female Olympian.

“I’m just in awe to be here and watching Katie swim,” Thompson said on the NBC broadcast as Ledecky paddled away from the field. “She’s at a level far above me, in my mind.”

Ledecky won the event with an Olympic record time of 15:30.02.

And as she swam, Ledecky’s mind wandered, she said during a post-race interview on NBC.

“Proud of the time, I just really wanted to swim a time that I could feel really proud of and happy with,” Ledecky said. “And I kind of let my mind wander during the race, thinking of all the people that have trained with me. Was kind of like saying their names in my head and thinking about them. To my Florida crew, all those Florida boys that pushed me every day, I love you guys. I mean, I know I make your life hard a lot of days, but you guys made my life a lot easier today, so thank you so much.” 

The win in the 1500 meter is the first gold Ledecky has won in Paris. She won the inaugural women’s 1500 meter gold three years in Tokyo during the summer games.

“I’m just so honored to represent our country and those women that have set the standard for so many years have inspired me. They inspired me when I first started swimming so thank you to them, thank you to everyone that has supported me all these years,” Ledecky said.

With the gold in the 1500 on Wednesday, Ledecky’s Olympic medal cabinet back home will include the following:

• Gold in London 2012, 800 meter freestyle
• Gold in Rio 2016, 200 meter freestyle
• Gold in Rio 2016, 4 x 200 meter freestyle relay
• Gold in Rio 2016, 400 meter freestyle
• Gold in Rio 2016, 800 meter freestyle
• Gold in Tokyo 2020, 1500 meter freestyle
• Gold in Tokyo 2020, 800 meter freestyle
• Gold in Paris 2024, 1500 meter freestyle
• Silver in Tokyo 2020, 4 x 200 meter freestyle relay
• Silver in Tokyo 2020, 400 meter freestyle
• Silver in Rio 2016, 4 x 100 meter freestyle relay
• Bronze in Paris 2024, 400 meter freestyle