Katie Ledecky showed she was at the peak of her powers at the age of 26, winning the women's 800-meter freestyle on Saturday to retain her title and surpass Michael Phelps with a record 16th individual gold at the world championships.
Ledecky led from start to finish and touched the wall in 8:08.87, four seconds outside of her 2016 world record, to become the first swimmer to win a single worlds event six times — doing so consecutively as well.
It was Ledecky's second gold at these worlds, along with winning the 1,500 free earlier this week, giving her 21 worlds golds overall.
She went 4.44 seconds faster than silver medallist Li Bingjie of China, with Australia's Ariarne Titmus collecting bronze. Sarah Sjoestroem cruised to her fifth straight world title in the women's 50 butterfly before breaking the world record in the 50 freestyle in the semifinals.