After the 2013 world championships, where she won four gold medals and forced a recalibration of her goals with her coach, Bruce Gemmell, she emerged with two new times to shoot for three years down the road in Rio de Janeiro – a 3:56-something in the 400 free, which she nailed with a 3:56.46 on Sunday, and a sub-8:05 in the 800.
Advertisement
Katie Ledecky obliterated the field and her own world record in winning the 800m freestyle at the Rio Olympics on Friday, August 12, uniting the 200m, 400m and 800m titles for the first time since 1968.
It is incredible to think that in the time Katie Ledecky was bopping about her lane and waiting for her opponents to finish, Usain Bolt could run 100 meters and still have nearly two seconds to preen for the camera, or Mike Tyson could complete an entire boxing match.
Ledecky finished 11.38 seconds ahead of the silver medalist from Britain Jazz Carlin and Carlin was just two-tenths of a second better than the bronze medalist from Hungary Boglarka Kapas.
Ledecky, defending Olympic champion at the distance, added to her golds earlier in the week in the 200 and 400 freestyle and the 4×200 freestyle relay, plus a silver in the 4×100 relay.
The Bethesda native departs Brazil as the first woman to sweep the 200, 400 and 800 freestyles in 48 years and the third American woman to win four golds in a single Olympics.
Hosszu led from the start, reacting fastest from the block, but DiRado shadowed her the whole way.
“We all know we’re part of a really special team”, Ledecky said Saturday, five medals hanging from her neck after one of the greatest performances in Olympic history. Ledecky completed the trifecta with a flourish, breaking her world record in the 800 with a clocking of 8 minutes, 04.79 seconds.
After winning four golds and a bronze in the 2012 London games as a 17-year-old, Franklin failed to advance to the finals in her two individual events in Rio.
Ledecky will never have as many medals as Phelps, who is also a master of the butterfly, and medleys, but she may well end up being more dominant.
Last year, Bob Dorfman of Baker Street Advertising broke down her decision to go to college.
The nation flipped out, and so did Ledecky, laughing and crying her way to the podium.
“I just wanted to push myself and see what I could do”, she said.
“I couldn’t be here where I am today without (my family)”, she said.
Ledecky was scarcely breathing hard. She took gold in the women’s 200m freestyle, 400m freestyle, 4x200m freestyle relay and just last night, the 800m freestyle.
Turns out, the less-than-glittering times at the USA trials were no indication of how fast they would swim once they got to the big stage.
And another stunner: American Maya DiRado pulled off a furious rally on the final lap to upset “Iron Lady” Katinka Hosszu of Hungary in the 200 backstroke. “She was walking to the blocks with pure joy”. She came into Friday with the top dozen times ever.
“It was a tough race”, she said.
“It’s surreal, kind of absurd and, you know, when I touched, turned around and saw the one next to my name, I kind of smiled and laughed”, Ervin said.
Advertisement
In total, Ledecky has lowered the world record by 9.31 seconds over the past three years. “I like racing Michael” – Schooling reveals that he asked Phelps to reconsider his retirement after denying him his 23rd career Olympic gold.
