By holding world records in the 400, 800 and 1500 freestyle, Ledecky’s dominance continues to be astounding.
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If she looks a little clumsy on land, well, it’s because she is. “I feel like I’ve worked as hard as I ever have and it just hasn’t been there”. American Leah Smith took bronze in 4:01.92.
Ledecky had bypassed the 3:57s entirely. Germany’s Paul Biedermann holds the world record and is competing in Rio. She did that with flair on Sunday, finishing the 400-meter freestyle in three minutes, 56.46 seconds.
“Well, I don’t know what to say”, Efimova said, smiling and shrugging her shoulders.
Another night, another world record for Adam Peaty. When she saw the two digits 56 she said she felt nothing but pure happiness. “To see 3:56 was pretty exciting”.
In the post-race interview session, she was asked if she used performance-enhancing drugs, which she immediately denied, but the question is a fair one for all swimmers who are so dominant.
The 21-year-old smashed his own record to add the Olympic title to his world and European crowns.
“You can hear the crowd going insane and you can kind of pretend it’s for you”, Smith said. “You imagine it is for you, but you know it is for Katie”. At least I was able to make Rio, which was one of my goals. “It was just a matter of how fast she was going to go”.
NBC’s prime-time telecast averaged 29.8 million viewers Sunday, higher than Friday’s opening ceremony and nine million more than Saturday’s lackluster first night of competition. That’s the fastest I’ve been in prelims in a while. That’s what I’ve been doing all year.
In terms of countries, the US are the overwhelming leaders over the last 24 hours after their big night in the pool with over 138,000, while Brazil is up by almost 100,000 overall with 866,000 to date.
Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden took the silver medal while Emma McKeon of Australia won bronze.
Smith clocked 4:01.92, as the USA had its first two-medal event of the six individual finals in the meet’s first days.
Phelps, who celebrated the 19th Olympic gold of his career in Sunday’s 4x100m relay, faces more of a battle as he chases what would be his first individual medal of these Games. But the American phenom managed to hold the 22-year-old Swede off at the wall.
The Russians won the second most medals at the 2012 Paralympic Games in London, trailing only China. When it was over, she punched her right hand into the air. “I really thought I could explode in the last 50 meters”.
But here’s why Tuesday’s races were very special for both of them. “She did it masterfully. She swims like a man”.
Ledecky said Gemmell had to remind her to forget the tempo she had used in the sprint freestyle relay.
The victory was especially satisfying for Phelps, who was part of the US team that lost the 2012 Olympic final. But she left it in the pool. That allowed her to go directly to bed at 2:45 a.m.
Already she has a gold and a silver medal here in Brazil, with every prospect of carving up the field again in her remaining two individual events, the 200m and 800m freestyle. Global swimming chiefs have still offered no explanation as to why she was reinstated.
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That process began seconds after Franklin spoke to reporters, when the swimmer stopped at the end of the interview area to watch on a television as teammate Katie Ledecky competed in the second semifinal of the 200 free.
