Ledecky, true to herself, balked at the idea that she could fill the shoes of Phelps. In the stands at Olympic Aquatics Stadium, her family hugged and screamed and pumped their fists.
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If Ledecky were to master the 100 meters, however, it would open her to the possibility of accumulating Olympic gold medals at a more rapid pace. “So just to get my hands on second, I’m so happy”. “I don’t know why”.
The 800 freestyle was won by Katie Ledecky, who handily broke the world record in the event.
Katie Ledecky of the United States finally succumbed to her emotions on the podium after destroying the field in the 800 meters freestyle on Friday and smashing her own world record to complete a rare Olympic swimming treble. And not only has she been winning with historically great times, but she’s been winning by margins that have left the rest of the world behind.
Ledecky touched nearly half a length in front of her closest rivals – more than 11 seconds in front of silver medallist Jazz Carlin of Britain’s 8:16.17 with Boglarka Kapas of Hungary taking bronze in 8:16.37. “I’m not sure it does”, Gemmell said as Ledecky passed by in a hallway, sticking her tongue out at him.
Her potential is hard to believe and borders on insanity.
In the pool over the past week, 19-year-old Ledecky has done just that.
“It’s kind of the end of a four-year dream”, she said.
In the photo re-creation, Phelps is seen getting Ledecky’s autograph.
Ledecky has won a total of five medals at the Rio Olympics – gold medals for the 200-meter, 400-meter and 800-meter freestyles and the 4×200-meter freestyle relay and silver for the 4×100-meter freestyle relay.
The previous record of 29:31:78 was held by China’s Junxia Wang, who set it in 1993.
“I hope they look at me as someone they can look up to when they feel like they need to speak out against something that they feel is wrong”, King replied. From there, her teammates poured it on, winning the gold medal with a time of 3 minutes, 53.13 seconds, almost two seconds ahead of second-place Australia. I love seeing the way she attacks things. Just two days later, she struck gold again in the 200 free.
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”.
Ledecky was into her fourth answer in the “mixed zone” – where reporters ask questions of athletes from behind a metal fence – and clutching a towel to her chest against the chill when the tears started again.
Italy’s Paltrinieri won the 1,500 meters freestyle after dominating throughout the race with a relentless display of technique and endurance in the longest event in the pool.
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“It’s an overly easy environment for us to swim fast in because we’ve been through our Olympic trials, which is way more pressure-filled than the Olympics”, Ledecky said.
