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

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Women's 800 metre freestyle
at the Games of the XXXI Olympiad
Venue Olympic Aquatics Stadium
Dates11 August 2016 (heats)
12 August 2016 (final)
Competitors30 from 21 nations
Winning time8:04.79 WR
Medalists
Gold medal icon.svg Katie Ledecky Flag of the United States.svg  United States
Silver medal icon.svg Jazmin Carlin Flag of the United Kingdom (3-2).svg  Great Britain
Bronze medal icon.svg Boglárka Kapás Flag of Hungary.svg  Hungary
  2012
2020  

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 recordFlag of the United States.svg  Katie Ledecky  (USA)8:06.68 Austin, United States 17 January 2016 [11]
Olympic recordFlag of the United Kingdom (3-2).svg  Rebecca Adlington  (GBR)8:14.10 Beijing, China 16 August 2008 [12] [13]

The following records were broken during the competition:

DateEventNameNationalityTimeRecord
11 AugustHeat 4 Katie Ledecky Flag of the United States.svg  United States 8:12.86 OR
12 AugustFinal Katie Ledecky Flag of the United States.svg  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

RankHeatLaneNameNationalityTimeNotes
144 Katie Ledecky Flag of the United States.svg  United States 8:12.86Q, OR
246 Boglárka Kapás Flag of Hungary.svg  Hungary 8:19.43Q, NR
345 Jazmin Carlin Flag of the United Kingdom (3-2).svg  Great Britain 8:19.67Q
443 Leah Smith Flag of the United States.svg  United States 8:21.43Q
533 Lotte Friis Flag of Denmark.svg  Denmark 8:22.54Q
635 Jessica Ashwood Flag of Australia.svg  Australia 8:22.57Q
742 Sarah Köhler Flag of Germany.svg  Germany 8:24.65Q
824 Mireia Belmonte Flag of Spain.svg  Spain 8:25.55Q
934 Lauren Boyle Flag of New Zealand.svg  New Zealand 8:25.84
1036 Brittany MacLean Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Canada 8:26.43
1148 Hou Yawen Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China 8:30.59
1222 Andreina Pinto Flag of Venezuela.svg  Venezuela 8:30.92
1341 Tjaša Oder Civil Ensign of Slovenia.svg  Slovenia 8:33.14
1415 Éva Risztov Flag of Hungary.svg  Hungary 8:33.36
1526 Camilla Hattersley Flag of the United Kingdom (3-2).svg  Great Britain 8:33.65
1627 Emma Robinson Flag of New Zealand.svg  New Zealand 8:33.73
1723 Kristel Köbrich Flag of Chile.svg  Chile 8:34.34
1832 Zhang Yuhan Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China 8:35.32
1931 María Vilas Flag of Spain.svg  Spain 8:36.43
2038 Tamsin Cook Flag of Australia.svg  Australia 8:36.62
2112 Julia Hassler Flag of Liechtenstein.svg  Liechtenstein 8:38.19
2214 Valerie Gruest Flag of Guatemala.svg  Guatemala 8:39.80 NR
2328 Joanna Evans Flag of the Bahamas.svg  Bahamas 8:42.93
2416 Tamila Holub Flag of Portugal.svg  Portugal 8:45.36
2525 Leonie Beck Flag of Germany.svg  Germany 8:47.47
2613 Arina Openysheva Flag of Russia.svg  Russia 8:48.89
2717 Talita Te Flan Flag of Cote d'Ivoire.svg  Ivory Coast 9:07.21 NR
37 Anja Klinar Civil Ensign of Slovenia.svg  Slovenia DNS
21 Martina De Memme Flag of Italy.svg  Italy DNS
47 Sharon van Rouwendaal Flag of the Netherlands.svg  Netherlands DNS

Final

RankLaneNameNationalityTimeNotes
Gold medal icon.svg4 Katie Ledecky Flag of the United States.svg  United States 8:04.79 WR
Silver medal icon.svg3 Jazmin Carlin Flag of the United Kingdom (3-2).svg  Great Britain 8:16.17
Bronze medal icon.svg5 Boglárka Kapás Flag of Hungary.svg  Hungary 8:16.37 NR
48 Mireia Belmonte Flag of Spain.svg  Spain 8:18.55 NR
57 Jessica Ashwood Flag of Australia.svg  Australia 8:20.32
66 Leah Smith Flag of the United States.svg  United States 8:20.95
72 Lotte Friis Flag of Denmark.svg  Denmark 8:24.50
81 Sarah Köhler Flag of Germany.svg  Germany 8:27.75

References

  1. 1 2 "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. 1 2 "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.