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


The women's 800 metre freestyle event at the 2016 Summer Olympics took place between 11–12 August at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium.

Summary

U.S. swimmer Katie Ledecky achieved 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. 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. 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. Meanwhile, Kapás faded down the stretch to earn a bronze in 8:16.37, two tenths of a second short of Carlin's time.
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 and Ledecky's teammate Leah Smith, 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 and Germany's Sarah Köhler rounded out the championship field.
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.

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
The following records were broken during the competition:
DateEventNameNationalityTimeRecord
11 AugustHeat 4Katie Ledecky8:12.86
12 AugustFinalKatie Ledecky8:04.79,

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.

Results

Heats

Final