Back then, Ledecky was just a fan and Phelps who was two years removed from winning six gold medals at the summer Olympics in Athens. He missed the birth of his first daughter because of his training schedule but has never regretted his decision to return to swimming.
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Ledecky sliced 1.89 seconds off her own record in the longest event of the women’s swimming programme.
The 19-year-old swimmer just set a new record in the women’s 800-meter freestyle race at the Rio Olympics.
During the entire race, Ledecky was far ahead of her competitors, and she knew it.
This is Smith’s second medal of the Rio Olympics after she earned bronze in the 400m freestyle on Sunday. She certainly has nothing to complain about after winning two golds, a silver and a bronze in Rio.
Watching Ledecky swim, let alone race, is mesmerizing.
The other USA swimmers were Stanford alum Maya DiRado, who added a gold to go with her 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. Ledecky may have been out of sight but at no stage did Carlin give up the fight.
Michael Phelps was unable to add…
“I’m me, so I’m going to be hard on myself a little bit, because I don’t like to lose”, he said. “It’s the best thing I can do for my country”. Talking with him, he’s one of the rookies I’m very close with.
Fencing, men’s sabre: Aron Szilagyi of Hungary beat Daryl Homer of the United States for the gold medal, repeating his achievement from London.
“I’ve really enjoyed being an amateur”, Ledecky said. “I’ll need a couple of days to digest what has happened”.
Phelps tied with Chad le Clos and Laszlo Cseh as Joseph Schooling of Singapore pulled off the upset and won gold.
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“What she’s doing in the sport is ridiculous, it’s insane”, said Michael Phelps, the 22-time gold medalist who plans to retire again after his final race on Saturday. That’s three golds and a silver in four races. She said she did not believe so. Puig continued her surprising run at the Rio Games by reaching the women’s singles final, eliminating two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 on Friday.
