Katie Ledecky continued her dominance in the women’s 800-meter freestyle in Rio on Friday, earning her second consecutive gold in the event with a world-record time of eight minutes, 4.79 seconds.
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Looking back on her 400m freestyle silver, Carlin said: “I was aiming to get on the podium and I was prepared to do everything I could but you always surprise yourself”.
That will be Ledecky’s last swim in what has already been an extraordinary Olympics. Meyers took the 200, 400 and 800 at Mexico City in 1968.
“She sent like a good luck video to my mom who forwarded it to me and I saw it right before I left before the session tonight”, Ledecky said.
“I’m just ecstatic. I don’t think it has set in yet”.
Gemmell notes Ledecky has done this before.
10 years later, Ledecky is now Phelps’ teammate and has five Olympic medals to solidify a legacy of her own.
The 19-year-old American, who also won the 4x200m relay for 4 golds overall, touched in 8min 04.79sec, beating the previous record of 8:06.68 she set in Austin, Texas, on January 17.
“She reminds me so much of me 48 years ago”, Meyer told USA TODAY Sports by phone on Wednesday.
Great Britain’s Jazz Karlin finally touched in 8:16.17 to claim the silver, just ahead of Hungary’s Boglarka Kapas grabbing the bronze in 8:16.37.
If Phelps was disappointed with his non-gold medal, it did not show.
But the late night hardly seemed to bother the swimming star in her final gold medal race of the 2016 Olympics.
She also won a silver medal in the 4×100-meter relay.
The most decorated athlete in Olympic history couldn’t pull off one of his patented comebacks in the 100-meter butterfly, easily held off by a swimmer a decade younger. The winning time was 50.39 seconds.
Phelps is expected to resume his rivalry with South African Chad le Clos in a battle for gold in the 100 meters butterfly.
Ledecky’s split of 1 minute, 53.74 seconds crushed all others’ hopes as the United States defended its title in the event by nearly 2 seconds with a time of 7:43.03.
Joseph Schooling, 21, of Singapore got off to a blistering start, building a lead that not even Phelps could overcome.
She won the heat by 6.57 seconds and is expected to cruise to gold in the event Friday at 9:20 p.m. on NBC. The bronze went to Canada’s Hilary Caldwell.
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The 800-meter Olympic gold is Ledecky’s second in the event.
