BUDAPEST, Hungary — Katie Ledecky extended her record haul of medals from the world swimming championships to 22 with her latest 800-meter freestyle win Friday.
Ledecky clocked 8:08.04 to win the event for the eighth consecutive time at a worlds or Olympic Games. She is the first swimmer to win a specific individual event at five successive worlds.
She finished more than 10 seconds ahead of her rivals. Australia’s Kiah Melverton was 10.73 behind in second, and Italy’s Simona Quadarella was 10.96 behind for third.
Ledecky was under four seconds off the world record she set at the 2016 Olympics.
“I’m happy with that,” she said. “Fastest I’ve been in a couple of years. So really good end to a great week.”
It’s her 19th gold at a worlds and her fourth this week. She helped the United States win the 4×200 freestyle relay final Wednesday, two days after she won the 1,500 freestyle, which came two days after she won the 400 freestyle on the first day of racing in Budapest.
She completed the 400/800/1,500 triple for the fourth time at a single worlds, more than all the other swimmers who managed the feat combined. Germany’s Hannah Stockbauer, Australia’s Grant Hackett and China’s Sun Yang each managed it once.
Ledecky has the most medals for a female swimmer in world championships history. Only Michael Phelps, who won 26, has more.
“This is just the start, which is tremendously exciting for me,” said Ledecky, who added that changes to her approach are paying off. “There have been a couple of things that are a little different — training with the men, Bobby [Finke] and Kieran [Smith] and Trey [Freeman], who are all here, to try to keep up as much as I can and they push me. I hope that they feel that they’ve benefited from me being there, and just a lot of work on my stroke and my rhythm.”
In other events, Australia set a world record in the mixed 4×100 freestyle final.
Jack Cartwright, Kyle Chalmers, Madison Wilson and Mollie O’Callaghan finished in 3:19.38 to shave two-hundredths of a second off the record set by the United States at the last worlds in Gwangju, South Korea, in July 2019.
The Australians also ended the Americans’ three-title winning run from 2015 to 2019 in this event. All four were won with a world record.
Canada’s team of Joshua Liendo, Javier Acevedo, Kayla Sanchez and Penny Oleksiak was 1.23 behind the Australians for silver, and the United States team of Ryan Held, Brooks Curry, Torri Huske and Claire Curzan was third, 1.71 behind.
With one day of racing remaining at Duna Arena, the United States has 37 medals, just one short of the record 38 it claimed the last time Budapest hosted the worlds in 2017.