Australia’s Emma McKeon took the bronze.
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Katie Ledecky blitzed the field and her own world record in the 400-meter freestyle, and Michael Phelps added another gold medal to his Olympic-record haul as the Americans dominated in the 400-meter freestyle relay.
The time shattered Ledecky’s own world record – from the 2014 PanPacs – by nearly two seconds.
Katie Ledecky beat her old world record and set a new one. Her time of 3:56.46 in Sunday night’s 400-meter freestyle final, 1.91 seconds faster than her previous world record of 3:58.37, was as predictable as it was impressive.
“Pure happiness” radiated from Katie Ledecky as the 19-year-old us freestyle phenom gazed at the scoreboard and contemplated her latest feat: 400m free Olympic gold in world record time.
The first American swimming gold medal at the Rio Games was followed less than hour later by a Team USA victory in the 4×100 relay and perhaps the most unexpected Olympic gold medal in Michael Phelps’ career.
Franklin may not be on the same level she was in London, but she still has one of the best resumes in swimming history and will look to bounce back from her disappointing result in her last two events.
Upon seeing her time, she grinned broadly having achieved a goal she’d set herself back in 2013 of lowering the record in the event to “3:56 or better”. She still has the 200 backstroke to go and will likely be a member of the 4×200 free relay team.
Her winning margin of 4.77 seconds surpassed British Jazz Carlin who finished second with a time of 4:01.23 and her compatriot Leah Smith who came third with a time of 4:01.92.
After her big splash in London, “Missy the Missile” chose to swim at California for two years, spurning lucrative endorsement deals to be part of a collegiate team. Her time: 1:54.81. Surprisingly, it wasn’t good enough for first.
“It feels good to start getting toward the end how I want to”, Phelps said after the race.
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“It was a tough race, I knew she was going to go fast”. In fact, the 19-year-old American had time to touch the wall, turn around, and check out the scoreboard before Carlin and United States bronze medalist Leah Smith (4:01.92) finished. Peaty was claiming Great Britain’s first gold medal of these Games and GB’s first Olympic medal in the pool since Seoul 1988.
