Thanks to Katie Ledecky, Michael Phelps and the American women’s gymnastics team, Sunday was a bounce-back night for NBC in ratings for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
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Another big favourite was Sarah Sjostrom in the 100m butterfly and she duly delivered, taking gold in a world record time of 55.48 seconds ahead of 16-year-old Canadian Penny Oleksiak and United States defending Olympic champion Dana Volmer.
Ledecky was not as dominant as she was in winning the 400-meter freestyle, a race in which she shattered her own world record, on Sunday with a winning time was 3:56.46. The nine-time world champion is the current world-record holder in the 400-, 800-, and 1,500-meter freestyle – all at just 19 years old!
The Rio Olympic Games are in full swing and Team USA has managed to take home some gold.
Katinka Hosszu, the 27-year old Hungarian, is the only swimmer on this list who broke a record that wasn’t already her own.
Great Britain’s Jazz Carlin was nearly five seconds slower in taking the silver medal, with Leah Smith of the United States finishing third. At the 2012 Olympics, Franklin missed landing on the podium in the 200m freestyle by 0.01 seconds.
Ledecky was only beginning to show the world that stuff like that does happen, at least when she’s in the pool. Nobody will touch her in the 800, and the only thing that could prevent her from setting another world record is all the seconds she’s already shaved off her time since 2013.
Ledecky has been unstoppable in the 400m distance she missed out on racing it at the 2012 Olympics. Phelps later added a third, as part of the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay, giving him 25 Olympic medals.
DiRado, a Stanford graduate who studied management science and engineering, will start work at McKinsey & Company in Atlanta on September 9, but she had unfinished business in Rio. To get out there, it felt so good to just kind of get in the water and race again. And she admitted that the effort took a toll.
It’s a remarkable turnaround for a team that was lackluster at the 2015 world championships in Kazan, Russia, last August. With almost 80% of her mentions coming over the last day, look for Ledecky’s stock to continue to rise as she has three more events on her schedule.
Smith, who was thrilled to finish less than two seconds behind Ledecky in the 400m free at the U.S. trials, said she knew Ledecky was primed for something big.
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The U.S. remained on top until the 90th – and final – minute of regulation when Colombia’s Catalina Usme scored her second goal, this one on a free kick.
