Today in Sports History: August 7

In 2016, American Olympic swimmer, Katie Ledecky, set a new world record in the women’s 400m freestyle race with a time of 3:56.46 to win the gold medal at the Rio De Janeiro Summer Olympic games. 

Ledecky is a 7-time Olympic Gold Medalist and 15-time World Championship Gold Medalist which is the most for any female swimmer. She has broken 14 World Records and 37 American Records in her career. 

She is a three-time Olympian in 2012, 2016, and 2020. She is a 10-time medalist of 7 golds and 3 silvers. She won two gold medals in the 1,500m freestyle and 800m freestyle and two silver medals in the 400m freestyle and the 4x100m freestyle relay in the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics games. She won four gold medals in the 200m freestyle, 400m freestyle, 800m freestyle, and the 4x200m freestyle, and one silver medal in the 4x100m freestyle in the 2016 Rio Summer Olympic games, and a gold medal in the 800m freestyle race in the 2012 London Summer Olympic games. 

She also participated in the World Championships in 2013, 2015, 2017, and 2019. She won 18 medals with 15 gold medals and 3 silver medals. 

While not in the water, she was named the 2012-2013 USOC SportsWoman of the Year, 2016 Female Olympic Athlete of the games and 2017 Female Olympic Athlete of the Year by the United States Olympic Committee.

She is an eight-time individual NCAA Champion and two-time team NCAA champion at Stanford. She was named the 2017 Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year winner in the Honda Cup, the youngest member of the 2016 U.S. Olympic Swimming Team, the Female Athlete of the Olympic Games at the Team USA Awards, and was the youngest athlete on the 2012 U.S. Olympic Swimming Team.

She is currently training for the 2024 Paris Summer Olympic games. Be sure to look out for her and her record-breaking races.