After competing in three Olympics without winning a single medal, the 27-year-old Hosszu set up Tuesday night’s gold by winning the 400m individual medley on Saturday night and the 100m backstroke Monday night.
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Lilly King of the United States won the Olympic gold medal in the women’s 100 meter breaststroke on Monday, denying Russia’s Yulia Efimova, who was greeted with resounding boos from the Rio de Janeiro crowd. After then cruising through her semi-final, she is an overwhelming favourite to win a third gold in four days in Tuesday’s final. The Iron Lady sure has made up for her previous Olympic disappointments.
The last Games that featured different winners in these two events was Barcelona 1992, when China’s Lin Li won the 200m individual medley and Hungary’s Krisztina Egerszegi was victorious in the eight-lap race. DiRado, who is making her Olympic debut in Rio, previously announced she would retire at the conclusion of the Games to kick start her career as a business analyst in Atlanta. The couple met as students at the University of Southern California.
American Maya DiRado added a bronze to the silver she won in the 400m IM.
The Russian surged forward in the second half of the race and appeared to be catching her rival, but King finished powerfully in an Olympic record time of one minute 4.93 seconds, with Efimova 0.57 seconds behind.
“I have been racing so much in the past four years that that was kind of my goal that when we get to Rio it would kind of be second nature and it really feels that way”. The Hungarian displayed her veteran presence as she went right by Baker to win gold. “Coming into Rio, I wanted to take it like any other meet”.
“I don’t even feel exhausted just because I’m so excited”.
Hosszu dropped out of the 200 butterfly during the afternoon preliminaries, wanting to put her full energy into a race that encompasses all three strokes.
Missy Franklin of the United States, the 2012 Olympic champion at 100m, was reduced to a spectator, having failed to qualify in the event for Rio at the USA trials.
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And she’s not done yet.
