American swimmer Katie Ledecky has smashed the World Record in 400-metre freestyle that she previously held while at the same time bettering the Olympic Record that she set during the heats of the same event at the ongoing Summer Games as she swam her way to her second Olympic gold at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium in Rio de Janeiro. The 19-year-old clocked a superb 3:56.46 in the finale race today which exceeded the standing WR of 3:58:37 by almost two full seconds.
In the heats conducted earlier, Ledecky had set the best ever Olympic timing of 3:58.71. As she cruised to victory in the 400m finals, she outclassed her next best rivals by a huge margin of close to 5 whole seconds.
Great Britain’s Jazmin Carlin finished in the silver medal position with 4:01.23 while her United States’ teammate Leah Smith had 4:01.92 on the clock to earn the third place for bronze.
The Washington-born Ledecky led the World Record mark throughout the entire length of the race and as it came down to the final stretch of 100 metres, it was evident that she was eyeing yet another world record as she rushed towards the finish in lightning pace while staying clear of her competitors by a few bodies’ length. This fetched her first gold medal of the Rio Olympics 2016 after the silver medal she won on the previous day as a part of the American squad in the Women’s 4x100m freestyle finals.
