Images of Katie Ledecky approaching her eighth Olympic gold medal went viral for showing the incredibly dominant way in which she achieved the historic victory.
On Wednesday, the 27-year-old took gold in the 1,500-meter freestyle in Paris with an Olympic record time of 15:30.02.
And Ledecky dominated from the jump. The American had a lead of more than three seconds in the fourth quarter of the race and kept her foot on the accelerator, leaving her opponents in a race for second place.
Near the end, Ledecky pulled so far ahead that the broadcast cameras had to zoom out to show the second-fastest swimmer in the race.
Viral footage shows Ledecky returning to victory while another swimmer had yet to make her turn at the other end of the pool.
Katie Ledecky went viral for footage showing her dominance as she secured gold in Paris
As users praised Ledecky in the comments section, one user pointed out how her dominance makes her competitors “compete for silver.”
Behind Ledecky were France’s Anastasiia Kirpichnikova with silver and Germany’s Isabel Gose with bronze.
Ledecky also won the event at the 2021 Tokyo Games and is a five-time world champion, taking titles in 2013, 2015, 2017, 2022 and 2023.
The gold was also her 12th overall, tying Jenny Thompson and Emma McKeon for the most in Olympic history in women’s swimming.
Before Wednesday’s race, Ledecky had one medal at the Paris Games after taking bronze in the women’s 400-meter freestyle on Saturday.
Ledecky has earned a podium spot in all but one of her Olympic finals after finishing ninth in the 200 freestyle in 2021.
France’s Anastasiia Kirpichnikova took silver and Germany’s Isabel Gose bronze
Ledecky won gold in the 1,500-meter freestyle with an Olympic record time of 15:30.02.
Ledecky claimed her eighth Olympic gold medal and 12th place on the podium overall
She will look to add another gold and break the tie with Thompson when she competes in the 800-meter freestyle.
The preliminaries will begin on Friday and the final race on Saturday afternoon.
A win this weekend will make Ledecky the first woman to win nine swimming golds and tie her with Mark Spitz for second place in swimming golds overall.
A medal, meanwhile, will make her one of only two swimmers of either sex to win 13 medals in total at the Olympic Games.