The other USA swimmers were Maya DiRado, who added a gold to go along with silver and bronze in the two individual medleys, and Leah Smith, who picked up her second medal of the games after earning bronze in the 400 free.
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“The Olympics are the pinnacle of our sport and after you have to wait another four years to have that moment and I just wanted to enjoy it all and put my very best swim out there”. “If she decides at some point within the college four years that she wants to go professional, we’d fully support her”. She carried gold-plated expectations into the Games and somehow managed to surpass them.
On Friday Ledecky won the 800-metres to complete the third and final leg of the Olympic freestyle triple after 200m and 400m to become only the second woman in history to do so – after Meyer in Mexico City in 1968.
So coaches and teammates weren’t panicking Tuesday night when Ledecky jetted off the blocks in the final leg of the women’s 800-meter freestyle relay nearly a second behind Australia.
Katie Ledecky came into the Rio Olympics facing enormous expectations.
Taking silver behind her in the 800m free was Canada’s Jazz Carlin; the bronze went to Boglarka Kapas of Hungary. “I’ve told them a lot about it”, said Raisman, who lives outside Boston.
The combined margin of victory in the 800 freestyle at the previous five Games was 11.76 seconds.
Following in the footsteps of compatriot Derartu Tulu, who won gold in this event at the 1992 and 2000 Games, Dibaba was the first woman to retain her crown at London 2012. “She was walking to the blocks with pure joy”.
In all, Phelps has won four gold medals at these Games, two in relays as well as the 200-meter butterfly and 200-meter individual medley. He grinned afterward, appeared relaxed and sounded at peace with the result. But with his four golds in Rio so far, Phelps’ legacy not just as a swimming great but as an Olympic legend will be unavoidable even if he’s not in the pool when the next Olympics come around.
“I was only at a gas station”, she quipped, “so I didn’t think I was going to hurt anyone”.
All week in Rio, Phelps has been talking about his last races as a competitive swimmer, and getting a little nostalgic about hanging up his goggles and cap. And yet, the 2000 gold medalist in the 50 freestyle – now 35 – capped an wonderful comeback story Friday night by winning the same event 16 years later.
Some 23 seconds after Ledecky touched the wall, the last of the eight finalists finally ended the grueling race.
University of Virginia swimmer Leah Smith concluded her time at the Rio Olympics by finishing sixth in the 800-meter freestyle final on Friday night. “I hit all my goals right on the nose this week”, she said. But to look up and see the one next to my name was just so unreal. There have been times where I haven’t believed in myself.
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The surprises continued in the men’s 50-meter freestyle. In the men’s 50-meter freestyle, the last final of the night, Anthony Ervin won in 21.40, edging France’s Florent Manaudou (21.41) and his American teammate Nathan Adrian (21.49) in the one-length sprint.
