The women's 800 metre freestyle event at the 2016 Summer Olympics took place between 11 and 12 August at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium.

Summary U.S. swimmer Katie Ledecky set a new world record to defend her Olympic title in this event and to successfully complete a distance freestyle treble at a single edition for the first time, since Debbie Meyer did so in 1968. Dominating the race from the start, Ledecky quickly dropped two seconds under a world-record pace, as she pulled further away from the field to overturn her own existing standard with a gold-medal time in 8:04.79. Separated from the leader by 11.38 seconds, Great Britain's Jazmin Carlin edged out the Hungarian challenger Boglárka Kapás at the final lap for her second silver of the meet in 8:16.17. Meanwhile, Kapás faded down the stretch to earn a bronze in 8:16.37, two tenths of a second short of Carlin's time.

London 2012 runner-up Mireia Belmonte slipped off the podium to fourth in a Spanish record of 8:18.55. Outside the 8:20 club, Australia's Jessica Ashwood (8:20.32) and Ledecky's teammate Leah Smith (8:20.95), bronze medalist in the 400 m freestyle, picked up the fifth and sixth spots respectively, finishing 63-hundredths of a second apart from each other. Denmark's Lotte Friis (8:24.50) and Germany's Sarah Köhler (8:27.75) rounded out the championship field.

Ledecky also overturned the existing Olympic record in 8:12.86 to top the field of twenty-seven swimmers in the prelims, taking 1.24 seconds off the standard set by Great Britain's Rebecca Adlington in a since-banned high-tech bodysuit in Beijing eight years earlier.

Records Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

The following records were broken during the competition:

Date Event Name Nationality Time Record 11 August Heat 4 Katie Ledecky 8:12.86 12 August Final Katie Ledecky 8:04.79

Competition format

The competition consisted of two rounds: heats and a final. The swimmers with the best 8 times in the heats advanced to the final. Swim-offs were used as necessary to break ties for advancement to the next round.

Results

Heats Rank Heat Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 4 4 Katie Ledecky 8:12.86 Q, 2 4 6 Boglárka Kapás 8:19.43 Q, NR 3 4 5 Jazmin Carlin 8:19.67 Q 4 4 3 Leah Smith 8:21.43 Q 5 3 3 Lotte Friis 8:22.54 Q 6 3 5 Jessica Ashwood 8:22.57 Q 7 4 2 Sarah Köhler 8:24.65 Q 8 2 4 Mireia Belmonte 8:25.55 Q 9 3 4 Lauren Boyle 8:25.84 10 3 6 Brittany MacLean 8:26.43 11 4 8 Hou Yawen 8:30.59 12 2 2 Andreina Pinto 8:30.92 13 4 1 Tjaša Oder 8:33.14 14 1 5 Éva Risztov 8:33.36 15 2 6 Camilla Hattersley 8:33.65 16 2 7 Emma Robinson 8:33.73 17 2 3 Kristel Köbrich 8:34.34 18 3 2 Zhang Yuhan 8:35.32 19 3 1 María Vilas 8:36.43 20 3 8 Tamsin Cook 8:36.62 21 1 2 Julia Hassler 8:38.19 22 1 4 Valerie Gruest 8:39.80 NR 23 2 8 Joanna Evans 8:42.93 24 1 6 Tamila Holub 8:45.36 25 2 5 Leonie Beck 8:47.47 26 1 3 Arina Openysheva 8:48.89 27 1 7 Talita Te Flan 9:07.21 NR 3 7 Anja Klinar 21Martina De Memme 47Sharon van Rouwendaal

Final Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 4 Katie Ledecky 8:04.79 3 Jazmin Carlin 8:16.17 5 Boglárka Kapás 8:16.37 NR 4 8 Mireia Belmonte 8:18.55 NR 5 7 Jessica Ashwood 8:20.32 6 6 Leah Smith 8:20.95 7 2 Lotte Friis 8:24.50 8 1 Sarah Köhler 8:27.75

References