Katie Ledecky confirmed her status as the queen of the Rio 2016 pool with yet another stunning victory – this time in the women’s 800 metre freestyle.
Advertisement
Carlin’s final score was just 0.2s ahead of Hungarian swimmer Boglarka Kapas, who was forced to settle for bronze.
The American, who now has four golds and one silver at Rio – the same haul as Michael Phelps – shaved almost two seconds off her own world record. “I’ve had a lot of fun this week, not only in the pool but with my teammates and the memories mean more than the medals to me here”, she said.
Carlin, who missed the London 2012 Games because of illness, celebrated her “incredible feeling” after years of upheaval after changing coaches and moving training bases to Bath under Dave McNulty’s guidance.
Four years after winning the race by four seconds Ledecky did it again, finishing in 8:04.79 in what was an even more dominant performance than what she produced in London. However, she hadn’t even competed in the final for her best event, the 800m Freestyle yet.
Phelps had gold medal finishes in his first four races, but came up a little short in the men’s 100m butterfly on Friday.
Ledecky qualified for the final by setting an Olympic record of 8:12.86 in topping Thursday’s preliminary heats. The 21-year-old Schooling has come a long way since this photo he took with Phelps in 2008.
Her split at the halfway point of the race (4:01.98), would have placed her fourth in the women’s 400m freestyle final on Sunday. Here’s what the slightly awkward medal ceremony looked like. “I firmly believe that”. Ervin was first in the men’s 50-meter freestyle.
Sixteen years after winning a historic gold medal at the Sydney Games, Antony Ervin was back atop the podium.
Stunner: American Anthony Ervin, at 35, won the 50 freestyle – 16 years after he first won the event – to become the oldest swimming gold medalist in history. French star sprinter Florent Manaudou, the heavy favorite, finished second by one-hundredth of a second. Leah Smith of the United States finished sixth. Dirado’s win somehow might have been the most miraculous of them all, too.
She certainly has nothing to complain about after winning two golds, a silver and a bronze in Rio.
Advertisement
So it was unusual to see him, after what he insists was his final individual race as an Olympian, crowding onto a medal stand with two other swimmers. The Los Angeles Times says Ledecky “now holds the 13 fastest times ever in the event”.
