2024 PARIS SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES
- Pool Swimming: July 27 – August 4, 2024
- Open Water Swimming: August 8 – 9, 2024
- La Défense Arena — Paris, France
- LCM (50 meters)
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History was made tonight in the women’s 800m freestyle as American Katie Ledecky earned her 4th consecutive gold medal in the event.
Ledecky got to the wall in a blistering time of 8:11.04 to seal the deal but on her hip for most of the race was 400m free champion Ariarne Titmus of Australia.
Titmus ripped a new lifetime best of 8:12.29 en route to silver, establishing new Australian and Oceanian records in the process.
Entering these Olympics, Titmus’ personal best rested at the 8:13.59 clocked first at the 2022 Commonwealth Games then matched at last year’s World Championships. That rendered Titmus the 4th-best performer in history behind Ledecky, Canadian Summer McIntosh and Chinese ace Li Bingjie.
Titmus’ performance tonight now overtakes Li to rank #3 of all time.
Top 5 Women’s LCM 800 Free Performers All-Time
- Katie Ledecky (USA) – 8:04.79, 2016
- Summer McIntosh (CAN) – 8:11.39, 2024
- Ariarne Titmus (AUS) – 8:12.29
- Paige Madden (USA) – 8:13.00, 2024
- Li Bingjie (CHN) – 8:13.31, 2023
Titmus charged out aggressively and tried to set the pace against Ledecky who held a minor advantage until she started lengthening the lead around the 600m mark. That’s a different strategy for Titmus who would chase Ledecky instead of trying to lunge to the lead from the get-go.
| Titmus | Titmus | Ledecky | |
| 2023 Worlds | 2024 Olympics | 2024 Olympics | |
| 100m | 58.71 | 57.68 | 57.43 |
| 200m | 61.70 | 61.29 | 61.28 |
| 300m | 62.36 | 62.10 | 62.16 |
| 400m | 62.87 | 62.42 | 62.33 |
| 500m | 62.53 | 62.53 | 62.58 |
| 600m | 62.90 | 62.81 | 62.23 |
| 700m | 62.96 | 62.36 | 61.78 |
| 800m | 59.56 | 61.10 | 61.25 |
| Final Time | 8:13.59 | 8:12.29 | 8:11.04 |
Titmus now has amassed 4 medals thus far at these Games – 400m free gold, 200m free silver, women’s 4x200m free gold and now 800m free silver.
Thank you Retta for correctly describing it as ‘Oceanian’ and not ‘Oceanic’ record.
Will this be Titmus’ last 800m race?
Did she mention anything about that?
It’s definitely not her favourite event by a long shot, but to get a PB at the end of a big meet is impressive.
Well done to her.
Imagine if there was a 2026 Comm Games and the schedule allowed Arnie & Summer to face off in an 800free?
There’s still a chance of a downscaled games in Glasgow. Supposed to be a decision in the next few weeks.
Is 6 individual medals a record for Australian swimmers? Kaylee has 5 now too.
Indeed it is.
In terms of individual medals at the Olympics, Titmus has 6 overall, the most of any Aussie, and 1 ahead of Gould, Thorpe, Leisel Jones, and Mckeown.
However McKeown is the leader with 4 golds.
Titmus comes next with her 3G, 3S tally.
It’s been an amazing era having two superstars peak at the same time – look forward to it happening again in 2050
Their run at the Australian swimming medal tally has been huge.
Previously there were a few coming close to the overall tallies of Fraser and Murray and O’Niell.
Cate Campbell and Leisel Jones had 4 Olympics to amass those medals.
Emma Mckeon in her third Olympics is still collecting medals.
Titmus and McKeown are firing away with impressive performances over 2 games. MOC is on the rise too, particularly in relays so will be interesting to see if she can keep up in the 100 and 200 frees.
We need to ignore relays when talking about GOATs.
Fraser & Gould never had the advantage of (at least 2) extra relays in their day. Mind you they didn’t have a bunch of extra individual events either.
Keep the relay medals as an ‘also’ statistic after adding up individual medals.
AUSSIE OLYMPIC GOATS (female swimmers)
4/0/1 McKeown
3/3/0 Titmus
3/1/1 Gould
3/1/0 Fraser
2/1/1 O’Neill
2/1/1 McKeon
2/0/0 Rice
1/3/1 Jones
Arnie clicking sort by total medals.
Indeed – individual medals give more clarity to individual performance irrespective of events distance or stroke, or country/team.
Adding men to this shows how incredibly well the recent stars of the Aussie team have done historically, across the board:
4/0/1 McKeown (2024)
3/3/0 Titmus (2024)
3/1/1 Thorpe
3/1/1 Gould
3/1/0 Fraser
3/1/0 Rose
2/2/0 Hackett
2/2/0 Perkins
2/1/1 O’Neill
2/0/2 McKeon (2024)
That silver is worth it’s weight in gold. She is a mighty competitor and a class act.
Katie’s 800 free World Record will be very tough to beat. 8:04.79 is just plain crazy fast and it could last for a very long time….
Both 800 records are insane so is Katie’s 1500. Men’s 1500 should go down soonish.
AT and PM really showed up here, kudos.
KL keeps fighting on to hold her thrown. Looking forward to see how this event shapes up in LA.
god i wish Summer could’ve swam this..ah well
Definitely would have made it even more exciting.