TV frame sums up American freak

The American swimming superstar won a record-breaking fifth straight 800m world title on Saturday as she left her rivals in her wake once again.Stream Over 50 Sports Live & On-Demand with Kayo. New to Kayo? Try 14-Days Free Now >During the week a photo revealed just how far ahead Ledecky is of the competition, as she blitzed the field in the 1500m World Championships final to win by more than 14 seconds.No one else was even in the TV frame when Ledecky touched the wall on that occasion and it was a case of deja vu in the 800m this weekend.The 25-year-old claimed gold with a time of 8min 8.04sec, beating Australian silver medallist Kiah Melverton by more than 10 seconds. Once again, when Ledecky’s race was over, not a single other swimmer was in the TV frame, such was her dominance.Astonishingly, Ledecky’s time was more than four seconds quicker than her 800m gold medal-winning effort at last year’s Tokyo Olympics.Ledecky’s tally of World Championship medals now stands at 22, a record for a woman. Only American superfish Michael Phelps, with 26 World Championship medals, has more.Ledecky has 19 World Championship gold medals and she picked up four in Budapest this year in the 400m, 800m, 1500m and 4x200 freestyle relay.“Year after year it’s really hard work,” said Ledecky, who won her first major title at the 2012 Olympics.“In London I won my first gold 10 years ago, back then they said I was a one-hit wonder, and here we are, 10 years later and I have another gold.“I’m so excited for the future as well. This was only my seventh fastest (800m) time in the last couple of years but after a long week the gold counts.“Everyone’s pushing me and I’m working on my stroke and these World Championships were tremendously exciting for me.”Her latest victory marks the fourth time Ledecky has sealed the 400m/800m/1500m triple at a World Championships.Sadly, the world didn’t get to see the US megastar duel with Australian sensation Ariarne Titmus, who skipped the meet to focus on her preparations for the upcoming Commonwealth Games, which kick off in late July.Titmus dethroned Ledecky in the 400m freestyle in Tokyo last year, winning gold in one of the most memorable moments for an Aussie athlete across the entire Olympics.With AFP Via news.com.au — Australia’s leading news site https://www.news.com.au