Last Saturday, Katie Ledecky stunned the world by breaking the women’s 800-meter freestyle world record in long course meters with a time of 8:04.12 at the Fort Lauderdale stop of the 2025 Pro Swim Series.
The feat was remarkable on many levels. Her previous world record of 8:04.79 from 2016 was already impressive, and she managed to surpass it nearly nine years later.
Her most recent world records had been set in 2022 during the World Cup in short course meters, having set new all-time marks in the 800 and 1500 free. However, in long course meters, her last world record was set in 2018, done in the 1500 free at a Pro Swim Series meet.
She now holds 15 world records in long course meters, all in individual events. This ties her with Donna de Varona and Debbie Meyer as the American women with the most individual world records in 50-meter pools. She also equals Danish Ragnhild Hveger and Australian Dawn Fraser, trailing only East German Kornelia Ender, who set 22 individual world records in her career.
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Ledecky, already considered by many as the greatest female swimmer in history, continues to set impressive marks in an aspect that has long made her a legend: longevity.
In the list above, Ledecky’s longevity stands out, as she has broken world records over a span of 12 years. In that list, the closest is Fraser, who broke records in the 100 and 200 freestyle over eight years, between 1956 and 1964.
In fact, the swimmer who has broken world records over the longest time span in history is Sarah Sjostrom, with a 14-year interval between 2009 and 2023. However, those records were in different events. In this regard, within the same event, no one surpasses Ledecky, with just under 12 years between her first and latest world record in the 800 freestyle.
Another interesting fact: Ledecky has set world records in both the 800 and 1500 freestyle six times each. She thus becomes only the third swimmer in history to have broken world records six or more times in two different events. Besides her, only de Varona (eight times in the 200 IM and six times in the 400 IM) and Ender (nine times in the 100 freestyle and six times in the 100 butterfly) have achieved this.
These are just a few more accomplishments to add to the resume of Katie Ledecky, the greatest female swimmer in history.
I’d like to see a count of the number of times the swimmer has swam a time that would have been a WR if you ignore that swimmer’s own previous times. Ledecky’s count must be massive, since almost all of her swims in the 800m and 1500m over last 10 years would qualify!
Shouldn’t there be an asterisk by Ender, given that she was acknowledged as part of the East German doping program? Albeit without her permission.
Ender and Richter should not even be listed. There is documented proof that the entire East German women’s team was involved in a state-sponsored doping program run by scientists and doctors and paid for by their government. Whether the individual swimmers knew or not, they were taking PEDs. Most figured it out when visiting family and friends occasionally and were asked why their voices were now so low or how did they get facial hair and or bulky muscles. It is a crime that their results are not wiped from all records for the time period the documents show who was getting PEDs, when and how much.
Yes, that was my immediate thought as well.
Inge’s 99-00 was insane!!