Katie Ledecky Wins Gold Medal In Women's 800-Meter Freestyle At London Olympics

United States' Katie Ledecky competes in a women's 800-meter freestyle swimming heat at the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Thursday, Aug. 2, 2012. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)

LONDON -- American 15-year-old Katie Ledecky won the 800-meter freestyle at the London Olympics on Friday.

The youngest member of the U.S. swim team narrowly missed a world record in the grueling race, falling off pace on the last lap and finishing in 8 minutes, 14.63 seconds.

Mireia Belmonte Garcia of Spain touched in 8:18.76 to take the silver medal and defending champion Rebecca Adlington of host Britain finished in 8:20.32 for bronze.

Adlington set the world record of 8:14.10 at the 2008 Beijing Games.

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Loading Slideshow

• Michael Phelps

  United States' Michael Phelps reacts to his gold medal win in the men's 100-meter butterfly swimming final at the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Friday, Aug. 3, 2012.

• Missy Franklin

  United States' Missy Franklin smiles after winning the gold in the women's 200-meter backstroke final at the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Friday, Aug. 3, 2012.

• Cate Campbell

  Australia's Cate Campbell stretches before a women's 50-meter freestyle swimming heat at the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Friday, Aug. 3, 2012.

• Connor Jaeger

  United States' Connor Jaeger competes in a 1500-meter freestyle swimming heat at the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Friday, Aug. 3, 2012.

• Cullen Jones

  United States' Cullen Jones reaches the wall ahead of Germany's Marco di Carli, right, and Japan's Takuro Fujii in the men's 4 x 100-meter medley relay at the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Friday, Aug. 3, 2012.

• Swimming

  Swimmers take the start of the men's 4 x 100-meter relay heats during the swimming event at the 2012 Summer Olympics, Friday, Aug. 3, 2012, in London.

• Rebecca Adlington

  British athletes wear masks of Britain's Rebecca Adlington as they wait for the start of the women's 200-meter backstroke final at the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Friday, Aug. 3, 2012.

• Missy Franklin

  United States' Missy Franklin, left, and compatriot Elizabeth Beisel celebrate after their first and third place finishes in the women's 200-meter backstroke final at the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Friday, Aug. 3, 2012.

• Michael Phelps

  United States' Michael Phelps take the start in the men's 100-meter butterfly swimming final at the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Friday, Aug. 3, 2012. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

• Michael Phelps

  United States' Michael Phelps, right, celebrates after winning the men's 100-meter butterfly swimming final, as South Africa's Chad le Clos stands beside him at the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Friday, Aug. 3, 2012.

• Michael Phelps

  United States' Michael Phelps celebrates after winning the men's 100-meter butterfly swimming final at the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Friday, Aug. 3, 2012.

• Missy Franklin

  United States' Missy Franklin starts in the women's 200-meter backstroke final at the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Friday, Aug. 3, 2012. Franklin won a gold medal in the event.

• Missy Franklin

  United States' Missy Franklin reacts to her gold medal win in the women's 200-meter backstroke final at the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Friday, Aug. 3, 2012.

• Rebecca Adlington

  Britain's Rebecca Adlington competes in the women's 800-meter freestyle swimming final at the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Friday, Aug. 3, 2012.

• Michael Phelps

  United States' Michael Phelps, right, and South Africa's Chad le Clos react to their scores in the men's 100-meter butterfly swimming final at the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Friday, Aug. 3, 2012. Phelps won a gold medal in the event, le Clos won a silver medal.

• Michael Phelps

  United States' Michael Phelps, top, celebrates after winning the men's 100-meter butterfly swimming final, with United States' Tyler McGill beside him at the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park during the 2012 Summer Olympics, London, Friday, Aug. 3, 2012.

• Michael Phelps

  United States' Michael Phelps, left, leads South Africa's Chad le Clos during the men's 100-meter butterfly final at the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Friday, Aug. 3, 2012.

• Michael Phelps

  United States' Michael Phelps celebrates after winning gold in the men's 100-meter butterfly swimming final at the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park during the 2012 Summer Olympics, London, Friday, Aug. 3, 2012.

• Michael Phelps

  United States' Michael Phelps celebrates after winning gold in the men's 100-meter butterfly swimming final at the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park during the 2012 Summer Olympics, London, Friday, Aug. 3, 2012.

• Missy Franklin

  United States' Missy Franklin, left, and teammate Elizabeth Beisel celebrate their first and third place wins in the women's 200-meter backstroke finalat the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Friday, Aug. 3, 2012.

• Missy Franklin

  United States' Michael Phelps touches the wall as South Africa's Chad le Clos closes in for second place during the men's 100-meter butterfly final at the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Friday, Aug. 3, 2012.

• Missy Franklin

  United States' Missy Franklin gestures after receiving the gold medal for the women's 200-meter backstroke final at the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Friday, Aug. 3, 2012.

• Florent Manadou

  France's Florent Manadou celebrates after finishing first in the men's 50-meter freestyle swimming final at the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Friday, Aug. 3, 2012.

• Anastasia Zueva

  From left, Russia's Anastasia Zueva, silver, United States' Missy Franklin, gold, United States' Elizabeth Beisel, bronze, pose with their medals on the podium after theue win in the women's 200-meter backstroke at the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Friday, Aug. 3, 2012.

• Florent Manadou

  France's Florent Manadou reacts to his gold medal win in the men's 50-meter freestyle swimming final at the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Friday, Aug. 3, 2012.

• Missy Franklin

  United States' Missy Franklin holds her gold medal in the women's 200-meter backstroke final at the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Friday, Aug. 3, 2012.

• Michael Phelps

  United States' Michael Phelps puts on his gold medal in the men's 100-meter butterfly swimming final at the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Friday, Aug. 3, 2012.

• Katie Ledecky

  United States' Katie Ledecky swims out of the pool after winning the women's 200-meter backstroke final at the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park during the 2012 Summer Olympics, London, Friday, Aug. 3, 2012.

• Michael Phelps

  United States' Michael Phelps swims out of the pool after winning gold in the men's 100-meter butterfly swimming final at the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park during the 2012 Summer Olympics, London, Friday, Aug. 3, 2012.

• Michael Phelps

  South Africa's silver medalist Chad le Clos, left, United States' gold medalist Michael Phelps, center, and Russia's silver medalist Evegnu Korotyshkin pose on the podium after their wins the men's 100-meter butterfly swimming final at the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Friday, Aug. 3, 2012.

• Katie Ledecky

  United States' Katie Ledecky competes in the women's 800-meter freestyle swimming final at the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park during the 2012 Summer Olympics, London, Friday, Aug. 3, 2012.

• Michael Phelps

  United States' Michael Phelps puts on his gold medal after his win in the 100-meter butterfly swimming final at the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Friday, Aug. 3, 2012.

• Michael Phelps

  Russia's silver medalist Evegnu Korotyshkin, left, United States' gold medalist Michael Phelps, center,and South Africa's silver medalist Chad le Clos, right, pose at the podium following their wins in the men's 100-meter butterfly at the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Friday, Aug. 3, 2012.

• Michael Phelps

  South Africa's Chad le Clos, top, and United States' Michael Phelps take the start in the men's 100-meter butterfly swimming final at the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park during the 2012 Summer Olympics, London, Friday, Aug. 3, 2012.

• Michael Phelps

  United States' Michael Phelps concentrates before the men's 100-meter butterfly swimming final at the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park during the 2012 Summer Olympics, London, Friday, Aug. 3, 2012. Phelps won the gold.

• Michael Phelps

  United States' Michael Phelps is seen on a large display as he stands for the U.S. national anthem after he was presented with a gold medal in the men's 100-meter butterfly swimming final at the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Friday, Aug. 3, 2012.

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Comments

[Jordan Wills]

09:55 AM on 08/06/2012

Where's Leonard? Isn't he going to scream out "DOPING"? Oh, wait, this girl is representing USA, of course Leonard isn't going to accuse her. Yes, this part of my comment was to stab at Leonard.

This part of my comment is to congratulate Ledecky. Congrats to the 15 year old winning a gold olympic medal. A feat any young athlete should be proud of without people accusing them of cheating.

[buckustoothnail]

09:42 PM on 08/05/2012

And for this great loss was made possible by a gain, a gain of a reward of a bet, a bet by two men, more powerful for their own good, for anyone's good, a gain that was purely a $100 silver gaming token from Ceasar's Palace and a box of Cracker Jacks.

[buckustoothnail]

09:42 PM on 08/05/2012

Your growing pre-teen body is a wonderland for the newest, untrial-tested, non-FDA-legal hormonal serums that will bring your physical performance to its absolute peak while being undetectable for decades without the research used to create it being made to available to the IOC or WADA, which of course will never happen.

So the day comes and you win your uncle's boss's bet and you think you're sitting high and mighty as no one will ever know all that has happened and the doping and the cheating that got you there, but one day when you're out for a walk after another grueling day of training, at the tender age of 18 and a year away from Rio, you'll suddenly feel a slight bump in the your chest, you can't breathe, you're unconscious.

They'll say that it was undetected coronary heart disease, a genetic defect that just went unnoticed and you'll get your sermons and remberences, and you'll get your articles and the strangers that will cry at your memorial who will leave dead flowers, but you won't get your beautiful life that you deserved, those years of freedom and curiosity at school, those new and unique moments that you can never know to exist until they happen, the thread of experiences that ties us all up, those that make the Olympics such a cherished memory and only that...a memory in the past when life is all around us all the time.

[buckustoothnail]

02:59 PM on 08/05/2012

I'm concerned with the recent revelation of Katie Ledecky's relationship and ties to billionaire Ted Leonsis. There are photographs of 3 year-old Katie and her uncle Jon with Ted, his business partner, and Michael Jordan sitting in the owner's box at a Wizards game. She's the only child in the photo.

With Jordan's propensity for gambling, on anything, it does not take much of a stretch of the imagination to see Jordan and Leonsis engaging in some sort of trivial, outlandish, morally corrupt and ultimately very damaging "Trading Places"-type bet regarding Katie against one of Michael's sons, perhaps.

"Katie will win an Olympic gold medal before Marcus wins an NCAA title!"

Whatever that bet may be, Katie being pushed by forces much greater than herself started at a dangerously low age. Just two years later, at the age of 5, Kate was spending hours in the pool daily.

What's even more nefarious and unscrupulous of being the betting object plaything of two notoriously competitive multi-millionaires is the means that they would go to to win their bet, especially if you're on the side of the multi-industrialist billionaire.

Rather than face the demeaning shock tactics and humiliation of your unhappy father, Michael Jordan, instead you're the physical encasement of cutting edge billion-dollar biotech research technology and genetic manipulation.

[LovethemSkins]

10:49 AM on 08/05/2012

To those folks getting themselves all in a tizzy over the doping comments directed @ Ledecky, relax. I think they're pretty much sarcastic comments, due to the different treatment of Ye Shiwen after her victories and Ledeckys'. The outrage expressed @ Ledeckys' "doubters" isn't even close when Shiwen was accused. Shiwen was not only accused by the BBC commentator who called her meet, but, by an American swimming coach. It was full on from there and even former swimmers began negatively commenting on Shiwen. Now that Ledecky pulled the same thing, w/ less training, the accusations of Shiwen have subsided! People are asking why the double standard and that is all!

[buckustoothnail]

05:51 AM on 08/05/2012

It's pretty obvious Ledecky is doped up to her eyeballs. Let's face it, she's a dope cheat. No one can achieve such an unbelievable and impossible result without doping. Have you seen her? She has linebacker shoulders and looks like she's 35. And she came out of nowhere. She's also losing her hair going bald, an obvious sign of extreme steroid use. Any time in history that someone has looked like Superwoman it's turned out they were doping. Put her in a line-up with the East Germans from the 80's and it's impossible to tell them apart.

[FeralFemale]

08:53 AM on 08/05/2012

Are you a Chinese propoganda operative?

No, I am being totally serious.

See, folks, I was curious about why Ledecky had a receding hairline so I googled it. I found 'buckustoothnail' all over the web posting the same exact, word for word, comments on comments sections all over the web under the same names 'buckustoothnail' or 'buckus toothnail'.

Check out his profile here. A new commenter, just joined in July. It's the same everywhere else. What sort of confirmed it for me is that when he isn't accusing Ledecky of doping, he is defending (again, with same posts everywhere) Ye Shiwen and saying how the Bejiing Olympics were better.

Seriously. Google his profile name. He's everywhere. I googled: "buckustoothnail" AND bejiing OR olympics OR ledecky OR Shiwen

Check out the results.

[Mike Parent]

09:19 AM on 08/05/2012

You're Trolling.

[helloFenyz]

08:34 PM on 08/04/2012

Why great Olympic feats raise suspicions ?
'Performance profiling' could help to dispel doubts.

At the Olympics, how fast is too fast? That question has dogged American swimmer Ledecky after the 15-year-old defeated Adlington in the women’s 800-metre freestyle, which revoke the question raised to Ye’s performance. Ledecky has never tested positive for a banned substance. Nature examines whether and how an athlete's performance history and the limits of human physiology could be used to catch dopers.

Reference
Ewen Callaway, Nature , 03 August 2012.
http://www.nature.com/news/why-great-olympic-feats-raise-suspicions-1.11109#commenting-terms-condition

[helloFenyz]

08:35 PM on 08/04/2012

Could an athlete then be disciplined simply for performing too well?

“That would be unfair,” says Tucker. “The final verdict is only ever going to be reached by testing. It has to be.” .........Tucker says. “When we look at this young swimmer from America who makes a history, that’s not proof of anything. It asks a question or two.”

[helloFenyz]

08:35 PM on 08/04/2012

Doesn't a clean drug test during competition rule out the possibility of doping?
No, says Ross Tucker, an exercise physiologist at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. Athletes are much more likely to dope while in training, when drug testing tends to be less rigorous. “Everyone will pass at the Olympic games. Hardly anyone fails in competition testing,” Tucker says.
.

[catbite]

05:35 PM on 08/05/2012

They need to start taking blood tests rather than testing urine.

[cinemaven]

05:56 PM on 08/04/2012

She was amazing... The NBC announcers...less so

When she jumped ahead by a full length from the beginning, the expert announcers explained how that was the main problem with someone her age and with her lack of experience. Lap after lap they talked about how her coach would be tearing his hair out because she was spending all of her energy while the much smarter British champion Rebecca Adlington was reserving her energy for the final push. As Ledecky maintained her lead, they talked about how the British champion was staying to the side of her lane while Ledecky was making the huge rookie mistake of swimming in the center...

They didn't even start accepting her awesome feat until the final lap when you would have thought they'd been calling the race for her the whole time.

I've started watching the coverage with the sound off...the announcers are all annoying

[OldWhiteMale]

05:28 PM on 08/04/2012

Note to self; don't brag about my kids accomplishments to Katie's parents. :)

[PalinEffect]

05:21 PM on 08/04/2012

Story is not accurate, she was at the W.R. world record line provided onscreen up until the last 10-15 meters, which is possibly because she had it WON by 4 seconds.

Who wants to bet Katie is the future world record holder, she only missed it by a few kicks to the wall.

[vrts800]

04:05 PM on 08/04/2012

Congratulation Katie! According to the head of US Swimming Coaches Association, Katie's win is totally legit because she is a wholesome white American girl. Ye Shiwen, on the other hand, must be doping because, let's face it, she is Asian.

[JoGo3338]

05:06 PM on 08/04/2012

What are you talking about? For what reason do you think the reason Ye Shiwen's win was questioned? And, why do you think because Katie is American, she would not be brought into question for the same circumstances that Ye Shiwen was..What is this..bash America day for you..Stupid comment..sorry..but it is.

[LovethemSkins]

10:38 AM on 08/05/2012

Have you been living on Mars? Shiwens' win was questioned immediately after winning and over a span of 3 days!! The questions continued even after she tested clean x2. Until Ledecky did the same thing, only then did the questions of Shiwen begin to subside!

[Killermolls44]

11:42 PM on 08/04/2012

That is so dumb.

[RomeoMD25]

03:04 PM on 08/04/2012

Here some numbers. I trust we would have to assume that Ye was cloned at least several years ago. Best times YE 400 IM – 2010 4:33.79, 2011 4:33.66, 2012 4:28.43.

Best times Ledecky 800 free 2010 8:58.86, 2011 8:36.05, 2012 8:14. 5 seconds from trials, yes, but 22 from 2011. Sure, age group swimming, but Ye is only one year older.

I am curious what would anyone say if they were to be told that Ledecky was Chinese!

[GGK1]

02:33 PM on 08/04/2012

Can't believe these comments. Do you all have anything positive to say EVER?? I am proud of this young lady. Her hard work has paid off!

[GGK1]

02:28 PM on 08/04/2012

Wonderful!! Hard work has paid off for this young lady. The female Michael Phelps???

[munki]

01:58 PM on 08/04/2012

S I M P L Y amazing!