America’s Katie Ledecky broke her world record in the 800 with a flourish Friday and Michael Phelps lost his last individual race of the Rio Olympics.
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Also Friday, Maya DiRado denied Katinka Hosszu’s bid to become a four-time gold medalist at the Rio Olympics, pulling off a furious rally on the final lap to win the 200-meter backstroke.
Ledecky’s name will go down in history next to Debbie Meyer’s as the only female swimmers ever to win three individual freestyle events at one Games.
She finished 11.38 seconds ahead of the runner-up, Jazz Carlin, of Britain, who clocked an 8:16.17.
She celebrated with her teammates Allison Schmitt, 26, Leah Smith, 21, Maya Dirado, 23, after a nail-biting race that saw the USA lagging behind other countries until Katie obliterated the competition with her breathtaking swim.
Garcia Belmonte caught Australia’s Madeline Grove heading into the 150-meter mark and held on for a tight win by three one-hundreths of a second-a little more than fingertip.
The 31-year-old Phelps still has a chance to leave Rio with 23 golds in his career.
Ledecky was the anchor in the 4×200 event, and as she dove in for her turn, she appeared to be in a pinch. Smith joined Ledecky on the 400m freestyle podium earlier in the week with a bronze medal.
“It would be great to have gold”, said Adrian, who barely advanced out of the preliminaries but almost pulled off the first back-to-back titles in the 100 since Pieter van den Hoogenband in 2000 and 2004.
It was the fifth Olympic medal for Ledecky and fourth in these Games.
Ledecky, 19, has gold medals in the women’s 400-meter freestyle and 200-meter freestyle.
In other action, Michael Phelps was stunned by Joseph Schooling of Singapore in the 100-meter butterfly.
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“I hit all my goals right on the nose this week”, said Ledecky, adding that her goal in the 800 free was “8:05 or better”. Meyer accomplished the feat first at age 16 during the 1968 Summer Games in Mexico City. They all touched in 51.14 – a half-body length behind Schooling’s winning time of 50.39. “It brings back so many wonderful memories of when I was swimming, things that this old brain has forgotten”.
