How many Olympic medals has Katie Ledecky won?
The legendary American swimmer Katie Ledecky has won 10 Olympic medals in her career. This includes 7 golds and 3 silver medals. Her seven gold medals are also the most won by a female swimmer in the history of the Games.
Besides this, Ledecky has clinched 26 overall medals and 21 individual gold medals at the World Aquatics Championships. It is the most achieved by a female athlete in the championships’ history.
Renowned as the greatest female swimmer of all time, Katie Ledecky made her debut in the Olympics at the London Olympics 2012. She competed in the women’s 800m freestyle event and placed third overall in the heats with a timing of 8:23.84.
In the final, Ledecky stunned everyone by clocking the then-second-fastest timing in the world (8:14.63) to win the gold medal. She also smashed the American record set by Janet Evans in 1989 of 8:16.22.
Katie Ledecky at the Rio Olympics 2016
At the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Katie Ledecky claimed four golds and one silver medal. She won her first gold in the women’s 400m freestyle with a timing of 3:56.46. Her second gold came in the women’s 200m freestyle where she clocked a personal best time of 1:53.73.
In the women’s 4X200-meter freestyle relay, Ledecky earned her third gold medal. Competing alongside Allison Schmitt, Leah Smith, and Maya DiRado, the USA team clocked 7:43.03 to win the event. She collected her fourth gold in the women’s 800m freestyle, setting a world record time of 8:04.79 in the final.
She also clinched a silver medal in the women’s 4X100 m freestyle relay where the USA team set an American record of 3:31.89. Winning four golds and one silver in Rio 2016, she established a record for the most successful single Olympics performance by a USA female athlete.
Katie Ledecky at the 2020 Olympic Games
Ledecky bagged four medals at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, winning two gold and two silver medals each. In her first event, she had to settle for the silver medal, clocking 3:57.36 to finish behind Australia’s Ariarne Titmus (3:56.69).
In the women’s 1500m freestyle, which was also the debut of the discipline in the Olympics. She clinched her first gold medal in the 2020 Olympics with a time of 15:37.34s, four seconds ahead of compatriot Erica Sullivan (15:41.41).
Ledecky added another medal to her tally by winning the silver in the women's 4X200 freestyle relay alongside teammates Allison Schmitt, Paige Madden, and Katie McLaughlin.
She ended her campaign by winning her second gold at the 2020 Games and seventh overall as she won the women’s 800m freestyle event. In addition, the star gymnast scripted history as the first swimmer to win in a distance event on three successive occasions.