Olympic gold medalist Katie Ledecky is in a league of her own.
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Not all the American stars were winners Tuesday, though. In its last game, Monday, the USA dominated Argentina 113-69.
The U.S. men defeated France, 17-3, to take Olympic gold at Paris in 1924.
For Phelps, the butterfly victory was especially sweet after the sting of the London defeat, where he misjudged his final lunge for the wall to let Le Clos steal the gold medal.
On Tuesday, Phelps’ face bared a familiar scowl as he walked out on to the deck.
But the South African could only manage fourth this time, also finishing behind bronze medalist Tamas Kenderesi of Hungary.
An officer in the Kuwait army, Deehani dropped to the ground and kneeled after reaching the final, then pounded his chest as he walked away.
Late in the Olympic 200-meter freestyle final, Katie Ledecky began to feel nausea swelling up from her stomach to her throat. Josh Prenot of the United States rallied to claim silver in 2:07.53, while Russia’s Anton Chupkov landed the bronze in 2:07.70. Ledecky has won 14 of 14 worldwide finals. At this pace, she could challenge Phelps’ medal haul someday.
After winning the 200-meter freestyle Tuesday night, Ledecky said she was feeling something close to relief, since her most competitive race was behind her and the US women had won all but one 4×200 freestyle relays at the Olympics.
It was Britain’s first medal in this event since they won a bronze in 1984, and made up for Guy’s disappointment in failing to pick up a medal in the 200m and 400m freestyle.
“The 200 free is such a more stressful event for me than the 400 or the 800”, Ledecky said.
Katinka Hosszu is having quite an Olympics, too.
Hosszu added to her wins in the 400 IM and 100 backstroke with a time of 2:06.58.
No other Olympian has more than nine golds. Its score of 184.897 was more than eight points clear of silver medalist Russian Federation. The 19-year-old swimmer regularly leaves her competitors so far in her wake that the only real competition is for second place. Each team performs five dives.
The normally stern Karolyi broke down in tears when she was told of the nickname the team adopted.
“This is the race I really wanted back”, he said. Conger still earned a gold medal by virtue of taking part in the preliminary race.
It is arguably the most competitive race in the world. Chen Ruolin and Liu Huixia didn’t seem to care about the color.
“The last 10 meters were not fun”, Phelps said.
Williams shanked shots all over the court in getting upset by Elina Svitolina of Ukraine. She got better. Long live the queen. Williams looked out of sorts and irritated, accumulating 37 unforced errors. Williams wiped her forehead, picked up her rackets and headed back quickly to the locker room.
Team USA takes home the top prize, adding another medal to its total. The Brazilians had already secured a spot in the women’s soccer quarterfinals before their match. After winning their opening match in straight sets, Kerri Walsh Jennings and new partner April Ross return to the sand in pool play of the women’s beach volleyball tournament.
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Olympic rugby features fast-paced, high-scoring, seven-on-seven games. New Zealand is a 12-time world series champion and one of the top contenders for the first rugby medals awarded at an Olympics in 92 years.
