To put the time in perspective, NBC Sports noted that the 19-year-old Ledecky’s time is faster than when Ryan Lochte — one of the best male swimmers of all time — was at the same age.

That’s not entirely accurate, as Lochte swam slightly faster as a 19-year-old college sophomore at Florida, according to his college bio, but Ledecky’s time is faster than any time Lochte swam in the event until then. Lochte’s fastest 500-free time as a college freshman was 4:25.85 and he swam a 4:25.54 as a 17-year-old high school senior in 2001.

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The 500 free, which is not held in Olympic competition, was not one of Lochte’s strongest events, but it has been a signature distance for Ledecky since she was in middle school.

“She swims like a guy,” Lochte told Sports Illustrated last March. “Her stroke, her mentality: She’s so strong in the water. I’ve never seen a female swimmer like that. She gets faster every time she gets in, and her times are becoming good for a guy. She’s beating me now, and I’m, like, ‘What is going on?’ ”

Ledecky, who took a gap year after graduating high school to focus on the Rio Olympics, now owns the top 10 times in the event. The next-fastest woman is fellow Olympian Leah Smith with 4:30.37.

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“I felt good. I felt coming in that I could do something like that,” Ledecky told the Pac-12 Network. “I was just really excited with how [Stanford’s] been doing, and we had a lot of swimmers in that [race], so it kind of just felt like practice and we were just really relaxed and ready to go.”

Ledecky’s previous U.S. record of 4:26.46 came in October.