It is the latest record for the six-time world champion over 200m and 400m freestyle who is the only swimmer − male or female − to have won eight medals in a row in the same event (200m freestyle) at the World Championships.
“I am overjoyed,” she said in an interview with Italian state broadcaster RAI.
“This was my main goal for this Olympics.”
The 32-year-old Venetian also confirmed it would be her last Olympic competition, after qualifying for the final with the seventh fastest time (1’56”44).
Pellegrini is the first female Olympic champion in the history of Italian swimming and the only Italian swimmer to have set world records in more than one event.
Her first Olympics was at Athens 2004, when she won silver medal at the age of 16, becoming the youngest Italian athlete ever to win an Olympic medal in an individual event.
She then won a gold medal in Beijing in 2008, before coming fifth place in London in 2012 and sixth at Rio in 2016.
