
NANTERRE, France >> Every year on August 3, Katie Ledecky is reminded of her first Olympic gold medal.
She was just 15 years old, a reserved high schooler who had surprisingly made the U.S. swim team for the London Games. Then she went out and shocked the world, beating everyone in the 800-meter freestyle.
Twelve years to the day, Ledecky did it again.
Not a stunner, but one for the ages.
Gold medal No. 9.
Ledecky capped another stellar Olympics by becoming only the second swimmer to win an event at four straight Summer Games, holding off Ariarne Titmus, the “Terminator,” to win the 800 free Saturday night.
It was Ledecky’s second gold medal in Paris and the ninth of her remarkable career, which marked another milestone.
She became only the sixth Olympian to reach that figure, joining swimmer Mark Spitz, track star Carl Lewis, Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina and Finnish runner Paavo Nurmi in a tie for second place.
The only athlete to win more golds: swimmer Michael Phelps with 23.
Ledecky was very aware of the significance of the date.
“Every August 3rd, the video (of her first Olympic gold) gets posted somewhere and you kind of reminisce,” she said. “So, when I saw it was August 3rd, I was like, ‘Oh boy, I’ve got to get the job done.’”
That she did, going faster than her winning time in Tokyo to finish in 8 minutes, 11.04 seconds. Titmus was right on her shoulder nearly the entire race, but Ledecky pulled away in the final 100.
Titmus, who beat Ledecky in the 400 freestyle, settled for silver at 8:12.29. The bronze went to another American, Paige Madden at 8:13.00.
Phelps had been the only swimmer to win the same event at four straight Olympics, taking gold in the 200 individual medley at Athens, Beijing, London and Rio de Janeiro.
• Summer McIntosh stamped herself as one of the swimming stars of the Paris Olympics with her third individual gold medal, winning the 200 individual medley.
The 17-year-old Canadian chased down American Alex Walsh and held off another U.S. swimmer, Kate Douglass, to finish in an Olympic record of 2:06.56.
Douglass grabbed the silver in the star-studded final at 2:06.92, but the Americans lost the bronze when Walsh, the silver medalist in this event at Tokyo who recorded a time of 2:07.06, was disqualified because she did not finish the backstroke segment on her back.
Kaylee McKeown, who touched fourth, was bumped up to the bronze at 2:08.08.
McIntosh also won gold medals in the 200 butterfly and 400 IM, plus a silver in the 400 freestyle.
• The United States made up for a disappointing showing in Tokyo by setting a world record in the 4x100 mixed medley relay.
Ryan Murphy, Nic Fink, Gretchen Walsh and Torri Huske held off China for a winning time of 3:37.43, breaking the mark of 3:37.58 set by Britain when it won gold in the wild and woolly event’s Olympic debut three years ago.
With each team picking two men and two women, the U.S. and China both went with their male swimmers in the first two legs.
Murphy put the U.S. in front on the backstroke, China’s Qin Haiyang slipped past Nic Fink on the breaststroke, but Walsh put the Americans back in front on the butterfly before Huske held off Yang Junxuan to secure the gold.
The U.S. bumped its total to six golds, one behind leading Australia with four events remaining today. The Americans are assured of winning the overall medal count with 25.
• Kristóf Milák of Hungary won the men’s 100 butterfly, chasing down three swimmers on the return lap to claim the gold.


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