Already considered one of the greatest swimmers of all time by the time she reached the Paris Olympics, Katie Ledecky made it official by claiming victory in her signature event, the 800-meter freestyle, to finish her work in the French capital in grand style.
French shortstop Leon Marchand may be the prince of Paris, electrifying the home nation with a spectacular four gold medals, but it is Ledecky writing her name into the record books after claiming her ninth gold, equalling Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina for the most of any woman in any Olympic sport.
In stark contrast to Ledecky's victory in the 1,500 meters, Saturday's 800 freestyle was a thriller from start to finish, with Ariarne Titmus matching her stroke for stroke for nearly the entire distance.
But with the American setting a relentless and grueling pace, her great Australian rival was never able to get ahead, settling for silver when Ledecky reached the first wall in a time of 8 minutes, 11.04 seconds.
Paige Madden took bronze for the United States.
It is Ledecky's fourth win in the 800-meter freestyle and she joins compatriot Michael Phelps as the only swimmer to win gold at four different Olympics.
The 800m was the final event on Ledecky's schedule in Paris and she returns home with two golds, a silver and a bronze, taking her Olympic haul to 14 medals in total (and more are possible). The 27-year-old has hinted that she is thinking about competing at the Los Angeles Olympics in four years.
And in a moment of passing the baton, Canada's Summer McIntosh enhanced her status as a rising star in women's swimming by winning her third gold medal of the Games in the 200m individual medley.
The 17-year-old produced a brilliant final comeback to win in a time of 2 minutes 06.56 seconds, the third fastest time ever.
American Kate Douglass finished second and took silver, while Australian Kaylee McKeown took bronze after American Alex Walsh, who had finished third, was disqualified.
McIntosh had already won gold in the 400m individual medley and the 200m butterfly, as well as a silver in the 400m freestyle.
“It's quite surreal. I'm really proud of myself, how I've been able to bounce back and handle the events because it's a lot,” said the teenager, who also won silver in the 400m freestyle during what has been an intense Games for her.
“The reason I can do this is simply because of all the hard work and dedication I’ve put into this moment along with my entire family, my teammates and my coaches, and I’ve also worked really hard to be here today,” he said.
The Canadian said she knew she had to do everything she could to secure her latest victory.
Earlier, Hungarian powerhouse Kristof Milak claimed his second Olympic gold with victory in a thrilling men's 100m butterfly final, adding to his silver medal, which he won in the 200m at the Paris Games.
Three years after winning 200m gold in Tokyo, the 24-year-old claimed the shorter of the two Olympic butterfly titles by touching the wall in 49.90, 0.09 seconds ahead of Canadian runner-up Josh Liendo.
Ilya Kharun claimed a second bronze for Canada, having already won one in the 200m butterfly in Paris.
Milak, who now has four Olympic medals, gave Hungary a second gold at the Paris tournament after Hubert Kos' title in the 200m backstroke.
In the final race of the evening in the pool, the United States broke the world record by winning gold in the 4×100-meter mixed medley relay, beating China and Australia.
Her team of Ryan Murphy, Nic Fink, Gretchen Walsh and Torri Huske clocked a time of 3min 37.43sec to narrowly beat the mark set by Great Britain at the Tokyo Games, when the event was first added to the Olympic programme.
China's Zhang Yufei took silver in 3:37.55, while Australia rounded out the podium in 3:38.76.
It is only the second world record set in the Paris pool after China's Pan Zhanle broke the best men's record in the 100-metre freestyle.
Teams in the mixed medley consist of two women and two men, and each of the four swimmers is assigned one of the four traditional medley strokes: backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle.
The United States chose Murphy as their first opponent against China's Xu Jiayu, while Australia opted for Kaylee McKeown.
Both Fink and Walsh then swam at full speed before Huske crossed the finish line, closely followed by Yang Junxuan of China and Mollie O'Callaghan of Australia.
