The nation flipped out, and so did Ledecky, laughing and crying her way to the podium.
Advertisement
While Ledecky, at 19, is the youngest member of the US team, Ervin is the oldest at 35. “I hit all my goals right on the nose this week, and I couldn’t be happier with how this week has gone”, said Katie. Four years later, Ledecky raced in three individual events and two relays, totaling 3,400 meters. She carried gold-plated expectations into the Games and somehow managed to surpass them.
It’s fitting that Ledecky closed out these games with the 800: Back in 2012, it was her shocking win in this event (at age 15, she beat then-world record holder Rebecca Adlington) that announced Ledecky’s presence as a swimmer with superstar potential.
Phelps has a chance to win his 23rd gold medal in his final race of the Olympics, the 4-x-100 medley relay.
But Friday’s victory provided the most compelling example yet of the extent to which Ledecky is dominating women’s swimming.
The battle for the minor medals was much closer.
And now Carlin has a pair of silvers, a more than accomplished return from her long overdue Olympic Games debut.
“We hadn’t seen Katie more excited the whole meet”, said David Marsh, coach of the USA women’s team. She said she did not believe so.
The joy Friday extended beyond Ledecky.
In a stunner in the 100-meter butterfly, Michael Phelps fell to Joseph Schooling of Singapore.
PHELPS SETTLES FOR SILVER: A stunner at the Rio Olympics: Michael Phelps was beaten.
“All those early mornings driving me to training when I was moody and I didn’t want to go to training”.
After the race, Phelps stopped to embrace teammate Maya Dirado.
Some 23 seconds after Ledecky touched the wall, the last of the eight finalists finally got to the end of the grueling race.
Ledecky’s gold medal-winning time of 8:04.79 set a new world record – besting, of course, a world record she already owned – and placed her more than 11 seconds ahead of runner-up Jazz Carlin of Britain.
A look of shock covered Dirado’s face when she turned to look at the scoreboard with the result.
“I try not to think about the history much”, Ledecky said. “My legs totally seized up”.
“No one’s trying to get fourth, they’re doing their best and it’s just how it happens”.
The surprises continued in the men’s 50-meter freestyle.
Friday’s effort carved almost 2 seconds off the 800m mark to 8 minutes 4.79 seconds and was no less than what she expected. Still with 22 Gold medals, four of which he bagged in Rio, Phelps is by far the best swimmer to ever dive into the Olympic pool.
“This whole day has been kind of insane because it’s all of these little last things that I’ve gotten to do, like my last warmup with the girls at the training pool today”, DiRado said.
And as she contemplated her achievement in Rio, the preternaturally poised teen couldn’t hold back her emotions. Tears streamed down her face as the national anthem played during the medal ceremony, her history-making week finally over. This only comes around once every four years or once in a lifetime.
Advertisement
For now, no woman is faster.
