Katie Ledecky delivered another dominating performance at the Rio Games, handily breaking the world record in the 800-meter freestyle Friday. “And I just wanted to make this meet count and have a lot of fun with it”.
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The teenager would grow up to become the mother of Katie Ledecky, who on Friday night became the first Olympian since Meyer to win the 200, 400 and 800.
There are no women in the world who can swim faster than Katie Ledecky in her freestyle events. “It was just a very happy moment and it’s been incredible to share that journey with him”.
She fought back tears, not always successfully, as she thanked Jenner and all those who had supported her since she broke onto the scene in London by winning the 800m free as a 15-year-old.
Ledecky took the gold in 8 minutes, 04.79 seconds. “I think it’s just a testament to the vision that Bruce and I had three years ago, and we weren’t going to stop until we hit those goals”.
The 800m freestyle is Ledecky’s best event, and she totally owns it. Ledecky has had the world record in the race since August 3, 2013, and has reset the record four times since, going from 8:13.86 to her almost 10-second improvement on Friday.
The 25-year-old is allowed to compete in the Olympics as she trains in the United States and has undergone regular drug tests over the last two years.
Twenty minutes after the race, she stood in the hallway near the pool.
Completing a remarkable journey in the blink of an eye, the oldest member of the USA swimming team touched first in the 50-meter freestyle, edging the defending Olympic champion, Florent Manaudou of France, by a mere hundredth of a second.
After winning four gold medals at these games and looking unbeatable, Phelps finally ran out of steam in what was the final individual race of his career unless he decides to come out of retirement again.
Carlin won the fifth Welsh silver of the 2016 Games in the pool just hours after cyclist Owain Doull won Wales’ first gold in Rio in the team pursuit. But he’ll have to do with some help from his teammates, swimming in the butterfly leg of the 400 medley relay on the final night of swimming on Saturday.
Phelps is expected to resume his rivalry with South African Chad le Clos in a battle for gold in the 100 meters butterfly.
For the first time since last weekend, Phelps had only one race to swim.
Phelps quickly swam over to congratulate Schooling, who seemed stunned by what he had done. “I’m numb right now”, – former National Football League star Michael Carter reflects on his daughter Michelle’s shock shot put triumph. “It’s been a really long week and I knew it was going to be a tough one”.
Phelps, he added, is “a guy that will go down in our history books as the greatest of all time of any sport”. Schooling built a big lead on the opening lap and easily held off the hard-charging Phelps to win gold.
In the men’s 50m freestyle, Ben Proud became the sixth British swimmer to finish fourth in a final in a race won by American Anthony Ervin 16 years after he shared the gold with Gary Hall Jr.
Hosszu settled for silver in 2:06.05, and Canada’s Hilary Caldwell took the bronze in 2:07.54.
Ledecky joined American Debbie Meyer as the only women to sweep the three longer freestyle events at the same Olympics.
Ledecky is the first Olympian to take the 200m, 400m and 800m gold at a single Games since another United States teenager, Debbie Meyer, achieved the feat at Mexico City in 1968 – the year the 800m was added to the programme. That was two-tenths of a second better than the bronze medalist, Boglarka Kapas, of Hungary.
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“I hope that what she does is kind of broaden her approach”, US head women’s coach David Marsh said. The win gave her four gold medals – three individual – to go along with the silver she won as part of the 4×100 freestyle relay in Brazil. In London, Ledecky was the youngest athlete on the entire USA delegation; in Rio, she’s the youngest female swimmer on the team. Florent Manaudou of France claimed silver and American Nathan Adrian bronze.
