Golden Again! Katie Ledecky Wins 1500-Meter Freestyle in Olympic-Record Time, Her 8th Gold

The 27-year-old swimmer has now tied the record for most Olympic gold by a female swimmer

Eighth time's the charm.

Katie Ledecky won gold yet again in the 1500-meter freestyle on Wednesday, July 31 at La Defense Arena in Paris, tying her for the most gold medals in Olympic history by a female swimmer with eight.

Ledecky, 27, swam a 15:30.02, easily finishing first ahead of second-place finisher Anastasiia Kirpichnikova from France, who earned silver with a 15:40.35. The win was her second in a row in the event, which was only introduced at the Olympics for female swimmers at the 2020 Tokyo Games.

Ledecky set an Olympic record in the process, besting her time of 15:35.35 from Tokyo.

The top distance freestyler was thrilled with her finish, excitedly yelling and slapping the water after touching the wall.

"It's never easy to win a gold medal," Ledecky told reporters, including PEOPLE, after the medal ceremony. "So I'm just trying to soak in every moment of it."

She admitted, though, that her "mind wandered a lot," during the long-distance race. "You know, three years ago in Tokyo, I was repeating my grandmothers' names in my head a lot. And today I kind of settled on the boys' names, the boys at Florida that I train with every day."

"I was just kind of repeating their names in my head, just thinking of all the practices that we've done and all the confidence that I get from training, from being next to them and racing them."

Her eighth gold tied her with fellow American Jenny Thompson, who competed in four games from 1992 to 2004. Ledecky also tied Thompson for the most Olympic medals by a female swimmer — 12 — with her win. She now has eight Olympic gold, three silver and one bronze medal.

Related: How to Watch Katie Ledecky Compete at the 2024 Paris Olympics 

Though this is only the second time women have competed in the 1500-meter freestyle at the Olympics, Ledecky has long been dominant in the event, and has won gold every time she competes in the 1500 at World Championships.

She was not, however, able to beat her world record in the event, which she set in 2018 at the TYR Pro Swim Series in Indianapolis. It was yet another instance at these Paris Olympics where no world record was set, a phenomenon some have chalked up to the shallower pool at La Defense Arena — though Ledecky said earlier this week that she hasn't given the pool depth much thought.

“I’ve heard the rumblings, but at the end of the day we’re here to race,” she told reporters, the Associated Press reported. “We’re all fast swimmers. We make the pool as fast as we want it to be. I’m not really thinking about it.”

Related: How Katie Ledecky Inspired Olympic Hopefuls Phoebe Bacon and Erin Gemmell When They Were Guppies (Exclusive)

Ledecky's win was an improvement over her first medal event of the 2024 Paris Games, the 400-meter freestyle, where she finished third. She acknowledged to press after the event that she would have expected to swim faster tonight, but said she "can't get mad at a medal."

"Happy to get a medal, happy to get two days of rest and try to be better," she told reporters, including PEOPLE, on the opening day of the Games, July 27.

To learn more about all the Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls, come to people.com to check out ongoing coverage before, during and after the games. And sign up for Going for Gold, our Olympics newsletter, to get the biggest stories from the Games delivered straight to your inbox. Watch the Paris Olympics and Paralympics, beginning July 26, on NBC and Peacock.

For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on People.