Katinka Hosszu is one win away from equaling East Germany’s Kristin Otto’s Olympic record.
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Katie Ledecky of the U.S. won her second gold medal of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games while Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu made it a hat-trick of victories when she came first in the women’s 200m individual medley final.
Team USA’s Kathleen Baker, making her first Olympic appearance in 2016, leads the 100m backstroke field after clocking the fastest time in the semifinals, 58.84 seconds. American Maya DiRado, who swims at Stanford, finished second for the silver medal, but she still finished almost five seconds behind Hosszu.
The Iron Lady is piling up quite a medal collection in Rio.
Katie Ledecky of the United States won the women’s Olympic 200-meter freestyle on Tuesday to claim her second individual gold of the Games and stay on track for a rare triple.
Hosszu was the overwhelming favourite in 2012 but managed only fourth place, and she was determined that would not happen again.
She was already a decorated swimmer before Rio, however.
Hosszu joins swimmers John Naber (four, 1976), Murray Rose (three, 1956), Janet Evans (three, 1988) and Lenny Krayzelburg (three, 2000) and sprinter Allyson Felix (three, 2012) as the only Trojans to win three golds in one Olympiad.
“It’s just insane that I’ve been able to swim two seconds faster than anyone ever, ever did”, she said, but added: “For the past four years I have been preparing to race”.
But while Tusup was overjoyed by his Hosszu’s performance in the final, he wasn’t so stoked with her swim in the heat, when she narrowly missed breaking the world record.
“I think the biggest issue with her is her husband”, the piece quoted her former couch Dave Salo as saying. And yet, NBC credited her husband / coach Shane Tusup as the one responsible.
“It’s really cool, I can’t believe I’ve won the 100 back”, the 27-year-old told reporters.
“It’s not about the race times, but the press conferences and doping control goes late”.
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“This is what we have prepared for the past four years”, she said. “I’m just so glad I got my hand on the wall first”. “I didn’t know that I had that time in me”.
