On Saturday in Rio, Hungarian swimmer Katinka Hosszu crushed the world record in the women’s 400-meter individual medley by more than two seconds on her way to winning a gold medal.
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The Iron Lady was golden again Tuesday night, and now only one race stands between Katinka Hosszu and an Olympic record. The last woman to win three individual swimming golds at an Olympics was Inge De Bruijn of the Netherlands at the 2000 Sydney Games.
American Missy Franklin, the 2012 Olympic champion in the event, did not qualify at the U.S. Olympic Trials in June to defend her gold in Rio.
Controversial Chinese swimmer Sun Yang claimed his third Olympic gold medal with a win in the men’s 200 metre freestyle at Rio 2016. Margalis, who finished fourth, was competing in her only event.
Mack Horton’s victory in the men’s 400 freestyle also meant Australia had already doubled their gold medal tally from a disappointing showing four years ago.
Jessica Hardy, an Olympic medalist who used to train with Hosszu in Los Angeles wrote in the New York Times about being subjected to verbal and emotional abuse as a child, said, ‘I’ve seen a lot of inappropriate and not-O.K. behavior in Shane’. Her husband and coach, American-born Shane Tusup, showed his excitement from the stands. The couple met as students at the University of Southern California.
“I don’t think I had my best race, but this is what we’ve been working for the last four years”, she said.
Seebohm, silver medallist in London in 2012, had achieved the second-fastest time in the heats but qualified for the final in seventh.
Some of the really big names in women’s swimming begin their battles in the 200 meters freestyle event.
Having suffered a nightmare Olympics in London, where she started as a hot medal prospect but came away empty-handed, she led from start to finish and stormed down the final length with the crowd roaring her on to the record.
“Coming into Rio I was a bit anxious that when I finally get here, I might get the feeling I had in London again”.
“I remember not enjoying it, I just wanted it to be over”.
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Hosszu dropped out of the 200 butterfly during the afternoon preliminaries, wanting to put her full energy into a race that encompasses all three strokes.
