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Katie Ledecky after the competition in the USA
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IMAGO/Grace Hollars/IMAGO/USA TODAY Network
US top swimmer Katie Ledecky smashed the short-course world record in the 800-meter freestyle a week after her fabulous time over 1500 meters.
At the World Cup in Indianapolis in the US state of Indiana, the seven-time Olympic champion stayed almost two seconds below the nine-year-old record of Spaniard Mireia Belmonte (7:59.39) with a time of 7:57.42 minutes.
Last week, the 25-year-old had already improved the 1500-meter world record to 15:08.24 minutes at the World Cup in Toronto, Canada.
She was almost ten seconds faster than the German Sarah Wellbrock at the previous record.
Wellbrock had set this up in 2019 at the German Short Course Championships under the name Köhler.
In 2021 she married Olympic swimming champion Florian Wellbrock.
Since the relay Olympic champion Li Bingjie had already beaten the 400-meter record of the Australian Ariarne Titmus by 2.62 seconds at the Chinese short track championships in 3:51.30 minutes, there are now all long freestyle distances in the 25-meter Cymbals new and hardly thought possible marks in the record books.
The start in Toronto a week ago was her first ever over this distance on the short course.
In Indianapolis, Ledecky, who is swimming her first serious short course series, completed the first 400 m in 3:56.64 minutes - more than two seconds faster than the German record set by Isabel Gose from Magdeburg over this distance.
Ledecky is currently hard to beat on the longer freestyle distances.
At the Swimming World Championships in Budapest in June, she won gold in the 400, 800 and 1500 meter freestyle.
The American triumphed over the two longest distances by a huge margin.
Ledecky has now won 14 individual gold medals at world championships.
No swimmer has ever won that many before her.
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