First time Olympic winners, including Australian teen Kyle Chalmers in the 100 metres freestyle, plundered three of the four golds in the Rio pool on Wednesday but there was no getting past Katie Ledecky.
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58sec, 22-tenths of a second ahead of Belgian silver medallist Pieter Timmers’ 47.
Rio de Janeiro: Australian head swim coach Jacco Verhaeren wasn’t always sure if gold medal victor Kyle Chalmers would be a sensation in the pool, but he knew AFL wasn’t capable of catapulting him to stardom.
“I think I definitely flew under the radar”, said Chalmers who won’t be able to stay out of the spotlight now after an electrifying Olympic debut that saw him duck under the 48-second mark for the first time in Tuesday’s heats.
Chalmers is the first Australian to win the 100m free since Mike Wenden in Mexico City in 1968. Of course he’s passionate about AFL but what I once said – and I’m not sure I told him to be honest but it was going through my mind – do you want to be an AFL domestic star, or do you want to be a world star?
Kyle Chalmers, aged 18, made a remarkable comeback from seventh place to snatch the win in the last few seconds of the race yesterday.
“I certainly don’t think it’s great for anyone. but he would never say that either”.
There was a rare gold medal for Kazakhstan in the 200m breaststroke, where Dmitriy Balandin won his country’s first Olympic swimming title since the break-up of the Soviet Union.
American Josh Prenot, who came into the Games atop the 2016 world rankings, was second in 2:07.53 and Russia’s Anton Chupkov was third in 2:07.70.
53 and Russia’s Anton Chupkov was third in 2:07.
Chalmers, who is the son of a former Australian Football League star, admitted he was stunned at his accomplishment and was still coming to grips with the fact that he actually won an Olympic medal, let alone gold.
“Last night I was walking over to my semi-finals and Kevin Durant walked in front of me”, Chalmers told the Sydney Morning Herald. “The best answer I can give is that I can”, said Armstrong, who retired after each of her two previous Olympic wins.
20 to match the bronze medal she claimed in London.
His victory came as American Katie Ledecky sealed her third gold medal of the Games, anchoring the United States team home in the 4x200m relay.
Canada’s Katerine Savard, Taylor Ruck, Brittany MacLean and Penny Oleksiak earned bronze in 7:45.
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He and old rival and USA team mate Ryan Lochte were the fastest qualifiers. She won two silvers in 2012 in the 200m butterfly and 800m freestyle.
