 and jenny thompson out of the coffin excuse me for the most medals ever by a female swimmer and her eight gold medals also ties thompson's record for the most gold medals by an american female in the olympics in the 1500 meter race that is no joke that is as grueling as it gets in terms of an endurance swimming event and ledecky was looking like she was sprinting at times that's how gifted she is as a sprinter as a swimmer and speaking of ledecky what she's able to do