Despite the fact that four finals were held on Night Three, one of the biggest cheers of the evening came during a semifinal event, as Michael Phelps was introduced for the semifinals of the 200 butterfly.
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Everyone loses to Ledecky; it’s just a matter of margin of defeat. “It’s definitely put me in the spot where I know I can hang with the guys – the best in the world and the best in the country”.
Leah Smith, who also made the team by finishing second to Ledecky in the 400 free Monday, was second-quickest in 1:56.47.
The 22-time Olympic medalist roared into the final of his prime event, clocking 1:55.17.
Before Phelps swam, youngsters rushed to the tunnel to get a glimpse of him just before his race. “My goal wasn’t really (to) stay with her, because that might be a stupid plan”.
Franklin’s performances had stagnated: her personal bests in her four best events, the 100 and 200 freestyles and 100 and 200 backstrokes, all are at least three years old.
McLaughlin maintained her No. 5 spot in the final lap, touching in Lane 1 in 1 minute, 58.43 seconds, which edged Sarah Henry of Aggie Swim Club in Lane 8 by sixth one-hundredths of a second.
But the world champion had gone out too fast.
Lochte becomes just the third USA male swimmer to make four Olympic Games appearances, alongside Jason Lezak. She finished second in the 100 butterfly behind Olympic rookie Kelsi Worrell, one of several young swimmers already signaling a changing of the guard in the first two days of the meet.
It is, in fact, a Ledecky family trait. To the special athlete with high hopes – the 1%, if you will – that’d be a colossal failure. That frightened her to the core, and while everyone around Team Missy says her back has been fine, she still worries that it may act up again, especially with the contortions it must perform in backstroke starts and turns.
Now, that doesn’t mean they’re not amazed by Katie. Watching Mary Gen watch her daughter swim is seeing someone who is loving the moment.
Franklin was almost 2 seconds off her winning time in London, touching in 1 minute, 0.24 seconds. “That’s been showing in these races”. There is as far as world teams and Pan-Am teams, so she’ll get racing experience because of that. By the halfway point of the race she was more than two seconds ahead of pace and the building went bonkers.
“I am feeling more pressure than I ever have before”, Franklin admitted. “I’m in a pretty good mental state going into (the 200 IM on Thursday)”.
Ledecky slowed appreciably on the back half of the race, missing the world record by six-tenths of a second.
Defending Olympic champion Allison Schmitt qualified fourth-fastest for the 200 free semis in 1:57.77.
“Oh my gosh, it was a star-studded field”, Smoliga said. “I probably would have liked to be a little faster, but I get to swim in the middle of the pool tomorrow, and that’s something I haven’t had the chance to do much this year”.
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Shockingly, the accomplished 21-year-old Tennessean nearly didn’t make it to the nighttime final, getting in by the thinnest of margins, .004 of a second, in afternoon qualifying.
