A record gold at age 27 for Katie Ledecky, and a momentous day for women Olympians

VERSAILLES and NANTERRE, France – As dawn reached France and Paris began its daily quest of recycling all the empty wine bottles, one all-time Olympic list began to quake.

That would be the ranking of career medals for a group of humans long deserving of respect while long straining to receive it: female athletes. Saturday figured to bring serious editing.

Isabell Werth awakened with 12 medals in six Olympics between 1992 and 2021, but by the afternoon, a nod with her German dressage team could inch her into a rarefied tie for third place at 13 alongside Dutch speedskater Ireen Wust and Maryland swimmer Katie Ledecky. That left only one inconvenience: Ledecky would swim that very evening.

Werth, 55, would compete within view of the Chateau de Versailles.

Ledecky, 27, would compete in a nice suburban rugby arena.

Werth would compete in the hush of equestrian.

Ledecky would compete in the aural damage of swimming.

Werth would answer a question about her longevity with a plea about the wretchedness of social media.

Ledecky has never known a world without the wretchedness of social media.

About 12 miles apart, they strove at sports-historic junctures, allowing for the fact that equestrian and swimming award medals in multiple disciplines where many sports do not.

As Werth competed Saturday afternoon as the second of three German teammates, she rode Wendy, a 10-year-old mare for whom Werth has developed a rapid adoration. The customary quiet held sway through the huge grandstands, rendering audible sounds such as flags flapping in the breeze, birds yakking overhead, the hum of a jet nearing Charles de Gaulle Airport and, faintly, the music accompanying the performance. People picnicked in the distance beyond the venue. The judges sat in their adorable little huts plying their precision. Werth and Wendy performed their own precision and finished. The crowd applauded well. Werth leaned down and hugged Wendy’s neck. A Werth-Wendy personal best of 79.894 appeared, and the competition continued.

As Ledecky competed Saturday night without a horse, the arena rang with great noise, Gala’s eternal anthem “Freed from Desire” and other songs played, and an announcer announced in the fashion of present-day announcers: He hollered into a microphone.

Hours before, Werth spoke to reporters in German and then English in the elegant outdoor setting while the competition kept going. She raved about Wendy even as she has collaborated with her only since January, provided Wendy a lofty place among all the horses of her life and said Wendy behaves as more like age 12 than age 10. Of the idea of “feeling (at) home” on a certain horse, she said, “I really can’t explain it.” She said, “When you have a horse and when you see a horse and when you sit on a horse and you feel that’s your horse, then it clicks and this is a really perfect match between us. And I think we both feel really confident, and that makes it so easy. She’s so uncomplicated.”

Fielding a question about Barcelona 1992, when her Olympic longevity began, she went nostalgic and plaintive: “Life was so much easier, I have to say. Without social media, it was so easy and it was so” – she searched for a word here – “uncomplicated. I think we have to think much more (now) before we do something, more controlled because you never know how the reaction will be. Sometimes you say something or you ride around, the horse is behind the vertical (meaning the head is tilted downward) and you have nothing wrong, and you get (criticized) and you don’t know why. So this is really much more difficult. And I don’t like this. I think we really have to come on a better way, all together.

“When I sit on my horse, it is (still as much fun as ever). And when I go in here and have my ride, that’s why I’m still here: because I love to compete. I love to improve horses and to develop horses and to compete on the top level. But when you go behind the curtain, then it’s more difficult.”

Hours later, Ledecky would emerge from behind the tunnel wall and draw a rousing cheer.

When Denmark’s Cathrine Laudrop-Dufour and horse Freestyle finished a performance close to impeccable, Germany’s Jessica von Bredow-Werndl and TSF Dalera BB would have to excel as the closing act. They did, and just after 3:30 p.m., the measured announcer said, “Once again, Germany are Olympic team gold medalists.” That made it 15 times. That happened by only 235.790-235.669 in the scoring this time. The bronze medal, behind Denmark’s silver, went to Great Britain, 10 days after it had replaced star Charlotte Dujardin with alternate Becky Moody after a video from two years ago surfaced showing Dujardin lashing a horse with a whip, prompting her banishment here.

As the medalists and their horses rode in for the medals, the largest cheer went to Werth, who had just become the first person with medals in seven Olympiads. She has eight gold medals and 13 medals overall to trail, among women, only Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina with her nine golds and 18 medals in 1956 through 1964, and Norwegian cross-country skier Marit Bjorgen with her eight golds and 15 medals in 2002 through 2018.

Ledecky dove in and presented her usual picture of greatness spread out over 8-plus minutes. When she prevented suspense in the 16th and final length as U.S. flags bounced in the stands, she touched in 8 minutes, 11.04 seconds, and wreaked a huge cheer in the large room. Six hours after Werth had reached 13 medals, Ledecky had nudged ahead to 14, nine of them gold, in four Olympiads.

In the equestrian news conference, someone had asked Werth about something she stated two years prior: her intention to retire after Paris 2024.

“I changed my mind,” she said to sudden laughter.

Ledecky has stated her intention to keep going four years hence.

That means that at Los Angeles 2028, at ages 59 and 31, they might just keep rocking the chart.