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Katie Ledecky Wins 800m Freestyle at Olympics, Earning Her 9th Gold

The swimmer is the most decorated U.S. woman and the fifth-most decorated Olympic athlete of all time with 14 total medals.

Even with the pressure, mentioning the day “was going to be really hard,” the 27-year-old still got the job done—going faster than her winning time in Tokyo to finish in 8 minutes, 11.04 seconds. Michael 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. Titmus added some perspective to Ledecky’s consistency over the last dozen years, noting where she was when the American won that first gold in London.

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