Katie Ledecky asserts her dominance again, anchors United States to relay gold

Ledecky proved again Wednesday night that she's peerless in Rio de Janeiro

With each night, the legend of Katie Ledecky grows.

On Wednesday, the 19-year-old American swimming superstar anchored Team USA's 4x200 freestyle relay and in the process showed why she's the most dominant closer in sports.

It was a riveting race .... through about 80 percent of it. Australia held a near-one-second lead as Ledecky prepared to dive in. By the time Ledecky hit the wall, the United States was nearly two seconds ahead. She had the lead after 75 of her 200 meters. Team USA won gold with a time of 7:43.03. Australia's silver medal was achieved with a touch of 7:44.87, and Canada earned a spot on the podium with a relay clock-in of 7:45.39.

Ledecky to the rescue. To be specific, she made up .89 seconds and won by 1.84 seconds. So she swam the final leg 2.73 better than the second-place Australians. She's peerless, plain and simple. This is the third gold and fourth overall medal for Ledecky at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

"I had enough (left in the tank) that I could get out and hug these guys," Ledecky said. "I was swimming for these guys. Schmitty was fantastic, to have her on this team this year and see her swim so well. I don't know, I think we were all swimming for Schmitty."

Team USA swimming -- men's and women's combined -- has taken 21 medals in the pool through five days of competition: eight golds, five silvers and eight bronzes.

The winning four-woman team on Wednesday night: Allison Schmitt, Leah Smith, Maya DiRado, Ledecky.

"This is the biggest honor I've ever had," Dirado said on NBC afterward. "Once I found out I was on the relay, my heart just shot up. I'm so excited and this is the most amazing thing I've ever done in my life!"

Although she didn't make the cut for the final, since Missy Franklin did swim in the semifinal heat and help Team USA qualify for this event earlier in the day she also will receive a gold medal. Franklin helped Team USA win a gold in this event in 2012, one of the four golds she won in London. Schmitt swam in that quartet as well.

Ledecky's not done. A freestyle specialist, she still has one event remaining, the 800-meter freestyle, which will be held on Thursday. Ledecky is the overwhelming favorite and current world record holder (8:06.68) in the discipline.