The indomitable Ledecky breaks her own 800m freestyle world record nine years later

There is nothing better than having rivals grow to find the necessary motivation, especially when you have been dominating an event worldwide for almost three decades. This is the case of the great Katie Ledecky, who broke her own 800-meter freestyle record at the TYR Pro Swim Series in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. She did it almost nine years after breaking it for the fifth time in the final of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

The Maryland swimmer, who introduced herself to the world with her Olympic gold medal in the 800 meters at the London 2012 Games when she was just 15 years old, won with a time of 8:04.12, improving by 67 hundredths of a second on the 8:04.79 she had achieved in the Brazilian capital when she won the second of her four Olympic gold medals in the 800 meters.

At 28 years old, Ledecky, who has the 18 fastest times in history in the 800 meters - swimming 10 times under 8:10 - does not want Australia's Ariarne Titmus and Canada's Summer McIntosh to repeat in this distance the 'soro' that took place in the 400 meters and has put her foot down like never before.

On Wednesday, she had already set the second best time in history in the 1,500 meters and a day later she beat McIntosh , Olympic silver medalist in Paris behind Titmus, in the 400 meters, demonstrating that she will be finer than ever at the US trials for the World Championships in Singapore (July 11 to August 3).

In the final of the 800 meters in Fort Lauderdale, she swam alone almost from the start, nailing 30.5-second splits and pushing hard in the last two lengths when she knew she had the new record within her reach.