Katie Ledecky Breaks Another World Record [Video]

Katie Ledecky has been having a pretty good week at the World swimming Championships in Barcelona. The 16-year-old American broke two world records and claimed four gold medals.

According to the Bangkok Post, Ledecky has taken gold in the 400, 800, and 1500 meter freestyle events. She also earned a gold medal in the 4/200m freestyle relay.

Yahoo Sports reports that the American swimmer set the 1500m world record earlier this week and today she set a new world record in the 800m. Brittain’s Rebecca Adlington set the record in 2008 but Ledecky was able to top the mark by a quarter of a second. Ledecky finished the event in 8 minutes 13.86 seconds

Ledecky said: “I am thrilled, I exceeded my expectations for the year. The goal I set at the beginning of the year was three medals and one world record: now I have four golds and two world records so I couldn’t be happier.”

Denmark’s Lotte Friis was beating Ledecky for the first 650 meters but Friis couldn’t keep up during the final laps. Ledecky raced ahead to beat Friis by 2.46 seconds.

Friis, who won the event in 2011, said: “I think maybe she is going to turn out to be one of the greatest swimmers of all time…The plan was to go out a little bit strong, to get as big a gap as possible and then see what Katie was going to do.”

[Image Via USA Swimming]