Does Rebecca Adlington Still Hold The World Record?

Adlington lost to the world record swim by her teammate Jo Jackson. Jackson led throughout and had more than half a second in hand on the final. Jackson swam home 4 minutes 00.66 seconds, chipping nearly nine-tenths of a second off the world record.

Adlington set a new British, Commonwealth, European and Olympic record of 8:18:06 in the preliminary heats of the women’s 800-metre freestyle on August 14, 2008.

Adlington went on to win the Olympic 800-metre freestyle final on August 16, 2008, in a world record time of 8:14:10, her second gold of the tournament, a full six seconds ahead of the silver medalist, and two seconds ahead of the former world record which had been set by Janet Evans when Adlington was 6 months old.

At the time, this was swimming’s longest-standing world record.