By the time Ledecky reached for the wall on her 16th lap Friday night, shattering her own world record by almost two seconds with a time of 8 minutes, 4.79 seconds, there wasn’t another swimmer close enough to appear in a photo of the finish.
Advertisement
Joining Ledecky in the race was teammate Leah Smith, who took sixth place in 8:20.95.
And she’s only 19!
DiRado couldn’t believe what she had done in her one and only Olympics.
“In some ways”, she said. But Ledecky was still alone at her end of the pool. There also will be qualifying in the women’s 100 meters and the men will do a little early work in the 400 and 800.
Needless to say, she crushed it, and people couldn’t wrap their heads around how. “I had so much fun this week”.
Ledecky, who owns the top 13 times in history of the women’s 800m freestyle after winning gold in a world-record time of 8:04.79 on Friday, was only trying for a best time in her final swim in Rio.
Carlin secured Britain’s fifth Rio swimming medal, with her two silvers complemented by two more from Siobhan-Marie O’Connor in the 200m individual medley and the men’s team in the 4x200m freestyle relay, and Adam Peaty’s 100m breaststroke gold. “I’m just honored and glad to have that moment and that privilege to race alongside Michael and Chad and all those guys”.
She grabbed hold of it Friday night, etching her name into the record books. At the midway point, she was more than a second ahead of her own world record pace and some 10 meters ahead of her closest competitor.
The top threats to the USA will likely come from Great Britain, which posted the fastest time in qualifying heats – and is hungry for a medal after finishing fourth in this event at London’s 2012 Olympics. Even though everyone knew she would win, Ledecky smoked the field by over 11.38 seconds. Her final 50-meter split of 28.99 was her second fastest of any lap in her individual events this week, excluding opening laps with a diving start.
Her 400 split of 4:01.98 would have won the bronze in the 400 final last Sunday.
She called it “a testament to the vision that Bruce and I had three years ago when we set these goals, and we weren’t going to stop until we met them”. “I’ve been able to do everything I’ve ever put my mind to in the sport and after 24 years in the sport, I’m happy with how things finished”. Then, after her coach moved to the West Coast, Ledecky connected with Bruce Gemmell and never missed a beat.
“The memories mean a lot more to me than the medals”, she said, beginning to choke up, “and these past three years have been incredible”. But now that it has, she revealed that this was not the only evening she shed a few tears thinking about these Olympic Games.
Advertisement
A swimmer’s life is measured in fractions of seconds in races, in minute-long sets repeated over and over in practice, in hours spent staring at a black line at the bottom of the pool.
