Katie Ledecky of the United States won the women’s Olympic 200 metres freestyle on Tuesday to claim her second individual gold of the Rio de Janeiro Games and stay on track for a rare treble.
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Phelps held off Japan’s Masato Sakai with a time of 1 minute, 53.36 seconds, but that number was of little concern. It may be Phelps’s best event, but he mistimed his finish in London and that allowed le Clos to beat him at the line.
According to ESPN Stats & Information research, the US has won five of six gold medals in the women’s 4×200-meter freestyle relay at the Olympics since the event was introduced in 1996.
Australia won silver and Canada took bronze.
The 19-year-old turned in another overpowering performance Wednesday to carry the United States to victory in the 4×200-meter freestyle relay, capturing her third gold and fourth medal overall at the Rio Olympics.
Ledecky called the 200 metre event “a much more stressful race” than the 400 or the 800 and later said she’s feeling strong going into the 800 heats on Thursday.
“I think I was prepared for any circumstance, whether we were ahead or behind”.
But a new generation of USA athletes is ready to take up the banner of Olympic standard-bearer from Phelps, a grizzled veteran at 31.
He was the last competitor to leave the pool deck.
SOUR SERENA: Williams shanked shots all over the court in getting upset by Elina Svitolina of Ukraine. She’ll also get a gold after swimming in the afternoon preliminaries, though her time wasn’t good enough to land her a spot in the evening final. The others came thanks to Williams’ 37 unforced errors and 17 forced errors.
She would go far, this one. Svitolina, who had never before played in an Olympics, smiled and stuck her arms out in front of her, palms up, as if waking up from a dream.
MEDAL STRIPPED: A Ukrainian javelin thrower was stripped of his silver medal from the 2012 London Olympics, becoming the latest athlete disqualified after the retesting of stored doping samples.
On the fifth night of swimming at the Olympic Aquatic Center, 18-year-old Kyle Chalmers dethroned defending champion Nathan Adrian in the final of the 100 freestyle, the first Australian to be crowned king of speed in 48 years.
RUGBY STUNNER: Sonny Bill Williams was helped off with an ankle injury during New Zealand’s shocking 14-12 loss to Japan in its first game of rugby sevens.
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PELE IMPROVING: Pele tweeted that he hopes to appear at the closing ceremony after missing the opening because of his health.
