Gold medalist Katie Ledecky’s swimming roots began in Montana

In a mesmerizing race, Ledecky, 19, broke the 400-meter freestyle world record she established two years ago.

Now 19 years old, Ledecky seems to be a far cry from her 17-year-old self, completely dominating the event and finishing nearly five seconds before the silver medalist, Britain’s Jazz Carlin.

Katie Ledecky had only one true competitor during the women’s 400-meter freestyle Sunday night in Rio, and that was the record pace line superimposed on the TV screen by NBC.

Hagen had never swam competitively before joining the team at CGF, but whatever aquatic chops she gained in Great Falls were clearly passed down to her daughter Katie. who grew up in Maryland. This fetched her first gold medal of the Rio Olympics 2016 after the silver medal she won on the previous day as a part of the American squad in the Women’s 4x100m freestyle finals.

“The feeling is totally insane”, Sjostrom said.

This may be the shortest race on Ledecky’s program but it’s definitely her toughest, requiring both speed and endurance against a far more competitive field.

If Ledecky wins her remaining events, she’ll become just the third USA woman, after Amy Van Dyken in 1996 and Missy Franklin in 2012 to win four gold medals in a single Olympics.

On Saturday, she won a silver anchoring the 4×100 freestyle relay, an unexpected honor that admittedly left her “shaking” as she waited to dive in for the final leg.

When Ledecky was still a blistering 1.19 seconds under her own world record at the halfway point of the race, Smith said she wasn’t tempted to steal a look because the roar of crowd seemed to grow louder with every lap. Nobody will touch her in the 800, and the only thing that could prevent her from setting another world record is all the seconds she’s already shaved off her time since 2013.

That leaves the 200m freestyle in what will probably come down to a duel with Italian world record holder Federica Pellegrini and Sweden’s butterfly gold medallist Sarah Sjostrom.

In the evening’s fourth final, Katinka Hosszu of Hungary won her third hold medal of the Olympic, cruising to a win in the 200m individual medley.

Along with her brother, who was a swimmer, Ledecky’s mother swam for the University of New Mexico and her uncle, Jon Ledecky, is the owner of the New York Islanders. “I’m just so glad I got my hand on the wall first”.

This was her first Olympic medal. While it was about a second off her world record 2:06.12 from the 2015 World Championships, it was fast enough for her to move into the semifinals with the top time. She still has the 200 free and 800 free to go, plus two relays.

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“I wanted the first 200 to hurt as little as possible and I really felt like I could build into it and really explode that last 50”, she added after leading the race from start to finish.