Katie Ledecky swims into history with 4th Olympic gold

The 19-year-old from suburban Washington capped off one of the greatest performances in Olympic history with her fourth gold medal and second world record, shattering her own mark in the 800-meter freestyle Friday night.

Ledecky and Debbie Meyer are now the only female swimmers to sweep the three longest freestyle races.

Before the 800, the former swimming great sent along a video message that was forwarded to Katie.

For good measure, she earned silver anchoring the 4x100 free relay, showing the sort of speed that has only recently become part of her repertoire but bodes well for her branching out even more in the future.

[...] after her coach moved to the West Coast, Ledecky hooked up with Bruce Gemmell and never missed a beat.

[...] she was better.

Jazz Carlin of Britain finally touched in 8:16.17 to claim silver, just ahead of Hungary's Boglarka Kapas grabbing bronze in 8:16.37.

"What she's doing in the sport is ridiculous, it's insane," said Michael Phelps, the 22-time gold medalist who plans to retire again after his final race on Saturday.