American swimmer Katie Ledecky broke the previous record of 15 titles held by her countryman Michael Phelps, writing herself into history once more. She achieved this historic feat by capturing her 16th individual gold medal in the 800m freestyle final at the world championships in Fukuoka, Japan.
Ledecky accomplished another major record during the event. She now holds the record for the most world championship gold medals won by a swimmer in a single competition with six in the women’s 800m freestyle.
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She finished the race in 15:26.27, which is the third-best time ever. It was her fastest performance since she bettered her world record in 2018 to 15:20.48. She was 4.44 seconds faster than Li Bingjie of China, who was the silver medalist. Australia’s Ariarne Titmus came third, collecting bronze.
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The American swimmer now holds the record for most gold medals ever won by a female swimmer with her 20 world championship golds and seven Olympic golds. Ledecky now also holds the world records for the women’s 800 (8:04.79) and 1500 freestyle (15:20.48) distances.
Here are the top 10 swimmers to win the most individual world titles
1 Katie Ledecky United States – 16 titles
2 Michael Phelps United States – 15 titles
3 Sun Yang China – 11 titles
4 Sarah Sjöström Sweden – 10 titles
5 Ryan Lochte United States – 10 titles
6 Katinka Hosszú Hungary – 9 titles
7 Caeleb Dressel United States – 8 titles
8 Grant Hackett Australia – 7 titles
9 Ana Marcela Cunha Brazil – 7 titles
10 Aaron Peirsol United States – 7 titles
