Katie Ledecky was celebrating beating her own world record 11 seconds before anyone else finished the race
Michael Sohn/AP
Katie Ledecky did it again.
On Friday, Ledecky took home gold in the 800-meter freestyle, swimming it in 8 minutes, 4.79 seconds, beating her own world record by nearly two seconds.
And as we saw with the 400-meter freestyle, her lead was such that she had touched the wall, took off her goggles, and celebrated her new record before anybody else finished.
Here's Ledecky touching the wall. No one else is even in sight!
Michael Sohn/AP
And here she is, moment later, hanging out, goggles off, still before anyone has finished:
Michael Sohn/AP
It was dominance epitomized. Right away, she grabbed an early lead and steadily built it throughout the race. Ledecky told NBC's Michelle Tafoya after the race that she knew right away that she would be on pace to beat the world record (again, her own). She said that it felt immediately like the best she had ever swam the race.
Here's a look at where she was before the race even finished:
https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/764271983517368320
This is how far @katieledecky is ahead right now.#Rio2016 pic.twitter.com/9uDymj7MIj
She now has four gold medals in Rio and five in total these games.
NOW WATCH: Here’s why Olympic officials closed the green diving pool