PARIS — Katie Ledecky won her ninth Olympic gold medal in Paris to equal the all-time women’s record and defend her 800m freestyle title ahead of Ariarne Titmus.
The American great touched the wall in 8:11.04 at La Defense Arena, 1.25 seconds ahead of Australian silver medallist Titmus.
Paige Madden took bronze for the United States, Reuters reported.
Ledecky’s ninth gold from four Games gives her a share of the all-time record for female Olympians with former Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina.
She also joined fellow American great Michael Phelps as the only swimmer to win four Olympic golds in the same event.
The United States broke the world record in winning the Olympic 4x100m mixed medley relay gold, outgunning China and Australia.
Their team of Ryan Murphy, Nic Fink, Gretchen Walsh and Torri Huske touched in 3min 37.43sec to narrowly better the mark set by Britain at the Tokyo Games, when the event was first added to the Olympic programme.
Zhang Yufei-led China took silver in 3:37.55 with Australia filling the podium in 3:38.76.
It is only the second world record in the pool in Paris after China’s Pan Zhanle smashed the men’s 100m freestyle best.
Teams in the mixed medley comprise two women and two men, with each of the four swimmers allocated to one of the four traditional medley strokes — backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle.
The United States chose to lead off with Murphy up against China’s Xu Jiayu with Australia opting for a woman in 100m and 200m Olympic champion Kaylee McKeown.
Both Fink and Walsh then swam storming legs before Huske brought it home with China’s Yang Junxuan and Australia’s Mollie O’Callaghan in hot pursuit.
Hungarian powerhouse Kristof Milak stormed to a second Olympic gold with victory in a thrilling men’s 100 metres butterfly final, while adding to the silver medal he won in the 200m event at the Paris Games.
Three years after claiming the 200m gold at Tokyo, the 24-year-old secured the shorter of the two Olympic butterfly titles by touching the wall in 49.90, 0.09 seconds ahead of Canadian runner-up Josh Liendo.
Ilya Kharun grabbed a second bronze for Canada, having also taken one in the 200m butterfly in Paris.
Now boasting four Olympic medals, Milak gave Hungary a second gold in the Paris meet following Hubert Kos’ 200m backstroke title.
Milak had to do it the hard way, coming back from fourth at the turn, emerging clear from a maelstrom of thrashing arms to draw level with Liendo in the final metres before edging him by a fingertip.
Milak has previously been denied gold by two champions at the peak of their powers, with American Caeleb Dressel posting a world record to beat him for the 100m title at Tokyo, and the unstoppable Leon Marchand overhauling him for the 200m title in Paris.
The gold is a just reward for Milak’s persistence, coming a year after he pulled out of the World Championships in Fukuoka saying he was at rock-bottom mentally and physically.
Canada’s Summer McIntosh set a 200 metres individual medley Olympic record as she won her third gold of the Paris Games and completed a double in the four-stroke event.
The 17-year-old touched out in two minutes 06.56 seconds to take down the 2016 record of 2:06.58 set by Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu at the Rio de Janeiro Games.
Kate Douglass of the United States won the silver and Australian Kaylee McKeown was awarded the bronze after US swimmer Alex Walsh, the 2021 silver medallist, was disqualified for an illegal turn at the end of the backstroke leg.
Walsh was visibly upset and did not stop to speak with reporters after leaving the pool deck.
McIntosh won the 400 IM last Monday and also took gold in the 200 butterfly on Thursday.
