Photos show how dominating Katie Ledecky was in her first individual race of the Rio Olympics

Ledecky Smashes Own Record to Win Women's 400m Freestyle
Ledecky Smashes Own Record to Win Women's 400m Freestyle

Katie Ledecky won her first gold medal of the Rio Olympics on Sunday night, breaking her own world record in the 400m freestyle by two seconds. She was also five seconds ahead of the silver medal winner.

Ledecky was expected to cruise to the gold medal, but five seconds ahead of the second place swimmer is hard to fathom. Basically, she swam the entire race in open water — so far ahead that the camera was unable to show any of her seven competitors. Again, this is an Olympic final.

Just look at this:

Rio Olympics Swimming
Rio Olympics Swimming

Morry Gash/AP

Here's the aerial view of Ledecky, with a slight edge on the world record time — and a big edge on the rest of the field:

katie ledecky rio
katie ledecky rio

Via NBC

Here's Ledecky celebrating before anyone else has finished the race:

Ledecky is also the heavy favorite to win the 800m freestyle and the 200m freestyle. She also owns the world record in the 1,500m freestyle, though women don't swim that event in the Olympics. On Saturday night, she took home a silver as part of Team USA's 4x100m freestyle relay team.

This picture, from her preliminary heat in the 400m freestyle earlier on Sunday, also shows just how far ahead she is when she swims this event:

Katie Ledecky
Katie Ledecky

Morry Gash/AP

She's only 19, but Ledecky really is just in a league — pool? — of her own.

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