Katie Ledecky of the United States broke her own world record on Sunday on the way to winning the women’s 400 meters freestyle gold medal, the first stage of a rare treble she hopes to complete at the Rio Olympics.
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Katie Ledecky’s 4.77-second win is over a second more than the margin of victory in Women’s 400m Free at the previous 6 Olympics COMBINED.
Swimming the anchor leg, Ledecky recorded a split in 52.64 and helped the American team finish second overall in the heats with the time of 3:33.59.
The world-record holder in the event, at this point the 19-year-old from suburban Maryland is racing against herself.
It was the second gold of the night for the US after Katie Ledecky produced an astonishing performance to win gold in the 400m freestyle. She has already broken one of those records with several races remaining.
“I knew that when I had a good turn – I came in with my hands ideal in the turn – I knew it would be hard for the others to swim faster”, said Sjostrom who was overcome with emotion when she realised she had broken the world record on top of winning gold. His reaction time of 0.08sec was the quickest of the race.
There was a hint in her afternoon qualifying race, when she set an Olympic record, that she might blow away the field. “I think if I didn’t have my brother swimming with me, I don’t know if I would have loved it as much as I did and still do”. “I really thought I could explode in the last 50 meters”.
Ledecky is also scheduled to compete in the 200-meter freestyle race, as well as the 4×200 freestyle relay.
This was her first Olympic medal, after she finished fourth in the 100 fly at the London Games four years ago.
While Sunday’s early numbers are pretty sizable they are still down from London’s first Sunday night, which 36 million people watched.
Breaststroke sensation Adam Peaty earned Great Britain its first gold medal of the Games with a typically stylish performance.
On the men’s side, the USA held off France to win gold in the 400 freestyle relay.
Chase Kalisz, of Bel Air, took home the silver in the 400-meter individual medley.
However, while Phelps’ presence was felt on Sunday, Ledecky had the largest impact. The US’ Leah Smith took bronze in 4 minutes, 1.92 seconds.
It’s not usual to see someone so handily beat their peers in the pool.
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“I’ve trained with her for the past month and the times she was putting up make me look like I was going to go five minutes”, Smith said. Everyone wants to swim their best at the Olympics. You might have anxious that Ledecky had pushed herself too hard with the finals still to come, but here’s the thing: She set an Olympic record without swimming her hardest.
