American swimmer Katie Ledecky – the nine-time Olympic gold medallist – broke her own 800m freestyle world record on Saturday. Gretchen Walsh, on the other hand, lowered her 100m butterfly world record twice in one day.

Ledecky clocked 8 minutes 4.12 seconds at the TYR Pro Series meet in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to surpass her previous world record of 8:04.79 set nine years ago at the Rio Olympics on August 12, 2016. It was the 800m gold at the 2012 London Olympics that catapulted her to stardom when she won it at the age of 15.

The performance marked a stellar week for Ledecky, who had not broken a long-course world record since 2018, when she set one in the 1500m. She holds 15 world records in the 50m pool.

It was a tactical race from Ledecky, who controlled the pace, surfing ahead through 400m. She lost her lead at the 450m and 500m marks but retrieved it by 550m, and a powerful final leg saw her break the world record.

Jillian Cox finished second with a time of 8:23.58. Claire Weinstein was third in 8:26.06.

The world-record-breaking performance from Ledecky came on the heels of a series of great performances. She posted her second-fastest 400m freestyle time on Thursday – her best timing in nine years – and recorded the second-fastest 1500m freestyle time in history on Wednesday.

In the Paris Olympics in 2024, she won the 1,500m free and also claimed a fourth straight 800m free gold, as she equalled the record for the most gold medals won by a woman athlete in any sport.

Walsh, meanwhile, became the first woman to break 55 seconds in the 100m butterfly, winning Saturday’s final in a jaw-dropping world record of 54.60 seconds.

This came hours after the two-time Olympic gold medallist lowered her own world record with a swim of 55.09 seconds in the preliminaries, improving on the 55.18 she set at the US Olympic trials in Indianapolis last June.

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