Katie Ledecky of the United States broke her own world record on Sunday on the way to winning the women’s 400 meter freestyle gold medal, the first stage of a rare treble she hopes to complete at the Rio Olympics.
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The Americans won in 3 minutes, 9.92 seconds, holding off France with Adrian’s brilliant closing leg of 46.97 seconds.
In a race of huge maturity, Commonwealth champion Carlin sat in the pack and made the move away from Leah Smith, whilst Ledecky in the lane next to her, left the opposition in her waves.
Ledecky broke the record by two seconds and beat the second-place finisher by almost five seconds.
“You can tell she is very goal-oriented, and for me it brought me back to kind of what I was like way, way, way back in the day”, 22-time Olympic medalist Michael Phelps said. “I knew I was due for a breakthrough”.
She’s just getting warmed up. The challenge when she swims those events here? In addition, she could pick up another gold in the 4×200 free relay. Britain’s Adam Peaty set his second mark in as many nights in the 100 breaststroke, while Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden eclipsed her own mark in the 100 butterfly. The bronze went to Cody Miller of the United States, whose time of 58.87 held off teammate Kevin Cordes.
The crowd went into a frenzy at the sight of two Brazilians in the final.
Sjostrom finished in 55.48 seconds, breaking the mark of 55.64 she set at last year’s world championships.
America got its first swimming gold medal of these Olympics from a predictable source Sunday night.
Crucially, Australian Thomas Fraser-Holmes finished in sixth at 1.46.24, 0.01 slower than Guy who scrapes in. American Dana Vollmer, the defending Olympic champion who returned to swimming after giving birth 16 months ago, took bronze.
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Phelps and the Americans didn’t mind a bit.
