As was the case in the 400 free, where she crushed her own world record, Ledecky was merely racing the clock as she powered away from the field to touch in 8 minutes, 4.79 seconds, eclipsing the mark of 8:06.68 that she set at a grand prix meet in Texas back in January.
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Ledecky, the defending champion in the event that first put her on the worldwide radar, recorded a winning time of 8:04.79, breaking her own record set in January by 1.89 seconds.
Great Britain’s Jazz Carlin won her second silver medal in 8:16.17, while Boglarka Kapas of Hungary took the bronze. She’s only the second woman to sweep the three longest freestyle races at the Olympics and the first one to do it since the 1968 Mexico City Games.
Fellow American Katie Ledecky will return to the pool for the 800 freestyle, where she set an Olympic record on Thursday. The next time the teenager, already a competitive swimmer, got in the pool, she cut through the water repeating to herself, “I am Debbie Meyer”.
“Hopefully we’ll inspire people”, Ledecky said, “30 years down the road even when somebody’s breaking my records”.
But the 23 year old Stanford graduate swam down Hosszu in the final 25 meters.
The Americans finished off the final night at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium by equaling their biggest medal haul in the last three decades.
“I’ve really looked up to Debbie and all the women’s freestyle swimmers in the United States team”, she said. “It’s just been a lot of fun”.
It clearly wasn’t a serious ailment: To say Ledecky left the competition in her wake would obscure the fact that much of her wake had settled by the time the other swimmers came along.
“I’m happy”, Phelps said. She earned bronze in the 400 freestyle on Sunday before winning gold with the United States 4×200 freestyle relay on Wednesday.
Like many of his contemporaries in Rio, Schooling grew up idolising Phelps, he keeps an old photo of himself as a bespectacled teenager with the American that was taken at a meeting in Singapore after the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Instead of garnering his 23rd gold medal, Phelps nabbed the silver in a three-way tie with Russia’s Chad Le Clos and Hungary’s Laszlo Cseh.
As much as Phelps’ legacy is the 22 golds and 27 medals, he leaves behind something even more dear to him: a generation of children who wanted to be like him more than anybody ever has wanted to be like any other swimmer. Nadal also reached the semifinals in his bid for a second Olympic singles gold, overcoming his Brazilian opponent and a racous, flag-waving home crowd.
Phelps was sixth at the turn and Schooling nearly exactly a decade younger than the 31-year-old American wouldn’t let him pull off one of his patented comebacks on the return lap.
“I’ve really enjoyed being an amateur”, Ledecky said.
Anthony Ervin of the U.S. took gold in the men’s 50m freestyle, 16 years after winning the same event at the Sydney Olympics. She’ll probably be more than ready to win more medals and take down more records. The impression one gets is that if Ledecky kicked harder, if she did what her competitors are doing, it would only disrupt her mystifying propulsion.
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Halsall won her semi-final in 24.41 seconds but ended up as the fourth fastest qualifier as Denmark’s Pernille Blume won the second semi ahead of Australia’s Cate Campbell and Ranomi Kromowidjojo of the Netherlands.
