Olympic swimming results 2016: Katie Ledecky wins gold in women’s 400m freestyle

Katie Ledecky earned the gold medal in the women’s 400-meter freestyle at the 2016 Olympics with a time of three minutes and 56.46 seconds. The premier female swimmer in the world right now, Ledecky made good on that title in her first individual final in Rio by finishing on top.

Ledecky blew past her old world record in the final, which was never even close. Ledecky got out to a huge lead early and carried it throughout all eight laps, even steadily staying ahead of the record pace that she set earlier this year. Great Britain’s Jazz Carlin won the silver, while American Leah Smith took the bronze.

Rarely does an athlete enter an Olympic event with as much hype as Ledecky did here. She burst onto the scene at age 15 by winning a gold medal at the 2012 Olympics and has since established herself as “the Michael Jordan of swimming.”

There was little doubt about who was going to win this race. The 19-year-old has been so good over the past couple years that it was hard to see anyone else pulling off the upset. When she flew through the prelims, her place as the favorite was a no-brainer.

During the prelims for the 400m freestyle on Sunday, Ledecky narrowly fell short of breaking her own world record, which she set earlier this year at the Arena Pro Swim Series. The next fastest swimmer was over four seconds behind her in the prelims. Entering the final, it felt like Ledecky was racing to beat her own time as much as the competition. In the end, that proved accurate as nobody was able to keep up with the American.

Ledecky now has three Olympic medals, including two from this year. She got her first medal in Rio as part of the 4x100-meter freestyle relay team that earned silver on Saturday night.