Ledecky has been on a mission in Rio, first helping the U.S.to silver in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay on Saturday and then doing Sunday what she does best: break records.
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Ledecky’s individual winning streak increased to 14-0; she has never lost a major worldwide final at meets such as the Olympic Games, world championships or Pan American Championships.
The United States women won gold in the gymnastics team final in 2012, but Martha Karolyi brings perhaps her strongest team yet to Rio.
Franklin endured another stunning disappointment today when she finished last in her semi-final heat with only the 13th-fastest time among 16 swimmers.
It isn’t up for debate – Katie Ledecky is now the best female swimmer on the planet. It was apparent that Katie was going to win after she came in first place by far in the heats on August 8.
Download the Team USA app today for breaking news, 2016 U.S. Olympic Team bios, videos and more. She was also the gold medalist in the Summer Youth Games and Asian Championships two years ago. It was the third gold of her Olympic career, after she won the 800-meter freestyle as a 15-year-old in London.
Both Phelps and Ledecky have dominated in the pool but it was the main man who commanded the attention after exorcising his demons of yesteryear.
Franklin seems to have accepted her fate.
“This is the race I really wanted back”, he said. They mean the world to me, so I want to make them proud. But for Rio 2016, she qualified in just two individual events – the 200 meters freestyle and 200 meters backstroke – at the trials in Omaha. In advance of the Rio Games she claimed not to be disappointed by the absence of the race, and maybe she’d rather not stack a couple of brutally long swims on top of an already exhausting program.
Her time of 1 minute, 57.56 seconds was actually slower than what she swam in the preliminaries earlier in the day. Phelps later added a third, as part of the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay, giving him 25 Olympic medals.
“I’m so exhausted I can’t even think straight”, Phelps said an hour later. That’s the fastest I’ve been in prelims in a while. “I’ll talk to my coaches and see what happened. Just disappointed that I let the team down”.
She conceded that her confidence level is “really different” than it was before the London Games.
“That is kind of how my year has gone”, she said.
Ledecky, of course, is aiming so much higher. The 400 gold was her second overall.
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DiRado said the difference between past year and the Olympic Games is she was “just better prepared for the race, knowing what the global competition looks like, knowing how fast everyone goes out and then just being able to close on the way home”.
