Katie Ledecky holds off Ariarne Titmus to win fourth Olympic 800m gold in row

• American claims ninth individual gold medal
• She joins Larisa Latynina as most decorated woman

Katie Ledecky lay flat on her back in the Olympic pool, pain still ­written on her face, trying to suck the air back into her lungs as fast as she could manage. The crowd were going wild on all four sides of the arena and yet for a few moments she simply stared at the roof, at the cameras and the scaffolding and the lights. For Ledecky, the pool has always been her freedom and her safety. It was as if she was enjoying one last moment of alone time.

Then, as smoothly as a tumble turn, she flipped upright, smiled into the galleries and waggled four ­fingers at the crowd. Until this point, only Michael Phelps had ever won four gold medals in the same event. The event that started it all, back in London when she was only 15 years old, when everyone was expecting a Rebecca Adlington coronation and nobody noticed the kid from Bethesda, Maryland, who would ultimately destroy them all.

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