Swimming at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Women's 800 metre freestyle

Women's 800 metre freestyle at the Games of the XXXI Olympiad
Venue	Olympic Aquatics Stadium
Dates	11 August 2016 (heats) 12 August 2016 (final)
Competitors	30 from 21 nations
Winning time	8:04.79 WR
Medalists
Katie Ledecky  United States Jazmin Carlin  Great Britain Boglárka Kapás  Hungary

The women's 800 metre freestyle event at the 2016 Summer Olympics took place between 11 and 12 August at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium.^[1]

Summary

U.S. swimmer Katie Ledecky set a new world record to defend her Olympic title in this event and to successfully complete a distance freestyle treble at a single edition for the first time, since Debbie Meyer did so in 1968.^[2] Dominating the race from the start, Ledecky quickly dropped two seconds under a world-record pace, as she pulled further away from the field to overturn her own existing standard with a gold-medal time in 8:04.79.^[3][4] Separated from the leader by 11.38 seconds, Great Britain's Jazmin Carlin edged out the Hungarian challenger Boglárka Kapás at the final lap for her second silver of the meet in 8:16.17.^[5][6] Meanwhile, Kapás faded down the stretch to earn a bronze in 8:16.37, two tenths of a second short of Carlin's time.^[7][8]

London 2012 runner-up Mireia Belmonte slipped off the podium to fourth in a Spanish record of 8:18.55. Outside the 8:20 club, Australia's Jessica Ashwood (8:20.32) and Ledecky's teammate Leah Smith (8:20.95), bronze medalist in the 400 m freestyle, picked up the fifth and sixth spots respectively, finishing 63-hundredths of a second apart from each other. Denmark's Lotte Friis (8:24.50) and Germany's Sarah Köhler (8:27.75) rounded out the championship field.^[8]

Ledecky also overturned the existing Olympic record in 8:12.86 to top the field of twenty-seven swimmers in the prelims, taking 1.24 seconds off the standard set by Great Britain's Rebecca Adlington in a since-banned high-tech bodysuit in Beijing eight years earlier.^[9][10]

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

World record	Katie Ledecky (USA)	8:06.68	Austin, United States	17 January 2016	[11]
Olympic record	Rebecca Adlington (GBR)	8:14.10	Beijing, China	16 August 2008	[12][13]

The following records were broken during the competition:

Date	Event	Name	Nationality	Time	Record
11 August	Heat 4	Katie Ledecky	United States	8:12.86	OR
12 August	Final	Katie Ledecky	United States	8:04.79	WR

Competition format

The competition consisted of two rounds: heats and a final. The swimmers with the best 8 times in the heats advanced to the final. Swim-offs were used as necessary to break ties for advancement to the next round.^[1]

Results

Heats

Rank	Heat	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	4	4	Katie Ledecky	United States	8:12.86	Q, OR
2	4	6	Boglárka Kapás	Hungary	8:19.43	Q, NR
3	4	5	Jazmin Carlin	Great Britain	8:19.67	Q
4	4	3	Leah Smith	United States	8:21.43	Q
5	3	3	Lotte Friis	Denmark	8:22.54	Q
6	3	5	Jessica Ashwood	Australia	8:22.57	Q
7	4	2	Sarah Köhler	Germany	8:24.65	Q
8	2	4	Mireia Belmonte	Spain	8:25.55	Q
9	3	4	Lauren Boyle	New Zealand	8:25.84
10	3	6	Brittany MacLean	Canada	8:26.43
11	4	8	Hou Yawen	China	8:30.59
12	2	2	Andreina Pinto	Venezuela	8:30.92
13	4	1	Tjaša Oder	Slovenia	8:33.14
14	1	5	Éva Risztov	Hungary	8:33.36
15	2	6	Camilla Hattersley	Great Britain	8:33.65
16	2	7	Emma Robinson	New Zealand	8:33.73
17	2	3	Kristel Köbrich	Chile	8:34.34
18	3	2	Zhang Yuhan	China	8:35.32
19	3	1	María Vilas	Spain	8:36.43
20	3	8	Tamsin Cook	Australia	8:36.62
21	1	2	Julia Hassler	Liechtenstein	8:38.19
22	1	4	Valerie Gruest	Guatemala	8:39.80	NR
23	2	8	Joanna Evans	Bahamas	8:42.93
24	1	6	Tamila Holub	Portugal	8:45.36
25	2	5	Leonie Beck	Germany	8:47.47
26	1	3	Arina Openysheva	Russia	8:48.89
27	1	7	Talita Te Flan	Ivory Coast	9:07.21	NR
	3	7	Anja Klinar	Slovenia	DNS
	2	1	Martina De Memme	Italy	DNS
	4	7	Sharon van Rouwendaal	Netherlands	DNS

Final

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	4	Katie Ledecky	United States	8:04.79	WR
	3	Jazmin Carlin	Great Britain	8:16.17
	5	Boglárka Kapás	Hungary	8:16.37	NR
4	8	Mireia Belmonte	Spain	8:18.55	NR
5	7	Jessica Ashwood	Australia	8:20.32
6	6	Leah Smith	United States	8:20.95
7	2	Lotte Friis	Denmark	8:24.50
8	1	Sarah Köhler	Germany	8:27.75

References

1. "Women's 800m Freestyle". Rio 2016. Archived from the original on 26 August 2016. Retrieved 5 August 2016.
2. Crouse, Karen (12 August 2016). "Katie Ledecky Smashes World Record in the 800-Meter Freestyle". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 September 2016.
3. Auerbach, Nicole (12 August 2016). "Katie Ledecky shatters world record in 800 free, wins fourth gold in Rio". USA Today. Retrieved 4 September 2016.
4. "Katie Ledecky breaks 800-free mark, wins 4th gold of Rio Games". ESPN. 12 August 2016. Retrieved 4 September 2016.
5. Lovett, Samuel (12 August 2016). "Rio 2016: More swimming success for Britain as Jazmin Carlin wins silver in the 800m freestyle final". The Independent. Archived from the original on 2022-05-26. Retrieved 4 September 2016.
6. "Jazz Carlin pays tribute to parents after second silver of Rio 2016 Olympics". The Guardian. 12 August 2016. Retrieved 4 September 2016.
7. Flynn, Daniel (12 August 2016). "Ledecky smashes 800m record to claim freestyle treble". Reuters. Retrieved 4 September 2016.
8. "Katie Ledecky Etches Her Name In History By Completing Sweep Of The 200-400-800 Freestyles". Swimming World Magazine. 12 August 2016. Retrieved 4 September 2016.
9. "Katie Ledecky Swims a Relaxed Olympic Record Time in 800 Freestyle Prelims". Swimming World Magazine. 11 August 2016. Retrieved 4 September 2016.
10. "Katie Ledecky sets Olympic record in 800-meter freestyle prelims". Chicago Tribune. 11 August 2016. Retrieved 4 September 2016.
11. Flaherty, Bryan (17 January 2016). "Katie Ledecky does it again, breaks world record in 800 free". The Washington Post. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
12. Lohn, John (15 August 2008). "We Loved You While You Lasted Janet, Rebecca Adlington Erases Longest Standing World Record With Evans' Mark in 800 Free". Swimming World Magazine. Archived from the original on 2 May 2012. Retrieved 19 May 2013.
13. "Adlington storms to second gold". BBC Sport. 16 August 2008. Retrieved 19 May 2013.