Katie Ledecky wins Olympic Gold - Women's 800m Freestyle | London 2012 Olympic Games
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Published 2012-08-03
Swimming has featured on the programme of all editions of the Games since 1896. The very first Olympic events were freestyle (crawl) or breaststroke. Backstroke was added in 1904.
In the 1940s, breaststrokers discovered that they could go faster by bringing both arms forward over their heads. This practice was immediately forbidden in breaststroke, but gave birth to butterfly, whose first official appearance was at the 1956 Games in Melbourne. This style is now one of the four strokes used in competition.
Women's swimming became Olympic in 1912 at the Stockholm Games. Since then, it has been part of every edition of the Games. The men's and women's programmes are almost identical, as they contain the same number of events, with only one difference: the freestyle distance is 800 metres for women and 1,500 metres for men.
Find more about Swimming at www.olympic.org/swimming
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All Comments (21)
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If she was this far ahead against Olympic swimmers imagine her High School Swim team she was probably already to the other side of the pool and finished before they even started to head back.
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She’s not the next Michael Phelps, she’s the first Katie Ledecky
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Katie swims like she's possessed by Poseidon. She's unbelievably strong in the water. So proud of this lady.
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"One of the finest swims you'll ever see..." And then Ledecky proceeds to better that time by nearly 10 seconds four years later.
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Ledecky and I are the same age, I remember watching this on tv stuffing my face with Cheetos whole she won a gold medal.
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It's just funny at how she dominated the race and was virtually unheard of at the time. The announcers just kept counting her out and doubting... now they know better!
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Man it's crazy to think that Katie is only going to be 19 and in her 2nd Olympics. This girl is amazing. Truly hope she achieves everything she wants to in 2016.
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Couldn't even drive at that age, but can win an Olympic gold medal. Insanity.
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she probably looks at this now and thinks MAN I WAS SLOW
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Imagine her in high school after she won gold, probably the new popular kid
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The commentators are such homers for Adlington. It's utterly delicious listening to them slowly realize what a force Ledecky is.
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I forgot she was only 15 when she started dominating. Her Rio performance was absolutely out of this world!
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And this was the last time Katie Ledecky had a real challenge. 4 years later she lowered her mark by 10 seconds. TEN.
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Still one of my all time favorite athletic performances. It's not just that she won, its that she went full throttle from the start and never looked back. A 15 year-old with that much courage can only set the world on fire. Love it.
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did anyone else audio lag at the gun start? I hear "Take your mark" and then the gun and theres about a 3 second lapse before they dive...
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I love how Katie just attacks the water. There isn't much strategy beyond going out fast and daring anyone to catch her. For most swimmers in distance races that strategy would be asking for trouble but Ledecky has insane stamina and strength and a killer instinct which people don't talk about..
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little ledecky was a machine!!!! her blistering pace wore everybody out. adlington was out of breath when she touched the wall, while ledecky looked like she could go another 200m!!! cant wait til rio !!!
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7 years later and this is still one of my favorite Olympic moments in history!
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here after she won this for the third time, what a legend
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“Ledecky may not have the endurance in the second 400” that comment aged well...
