Katie Ledecky (right) celebrates with second-place finisher Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden after their 200-meter freestyle final in Rio de Janeiro.
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The 200m was the only one that was really in doubt.
With challengers all around, Phelps simply wouldn’t be denied.
Still, after swimming two races against world-class athletes, Phelps lingered at the pool’s edge and ran his fingers across his throat in a cutting motion tonight, seemingly saying, “I’m done”.
Ledecky earned a gold medal in the 200-meter freestyle, and DiRado captured the bronze in the 200-meter individual medley. The duo of Chen Ruolin and Wang Hao won the gold medal together in the 2012 London Games. He would later add a 21st.
Phelps won in 1 minute, 53.36 seconds, edging Masato Sakai of Japan by.04. Ledecky now ranks as the third-fastest performer in history and she’s cracked the 1:55 barrier on six occasions, a seventh time (1:55.01) just shy of visiting.
She made no such mistakes.
Four years ago, Phelps misjudged his finish – gliding a little too long after his final stroke – and was edged at the wall by South African Chad le Clos. But when he decided about a year later to start competing again, the 200 fly was clearly the title he wanted more than any other.
Hungary’s Tamas Kenderesi claimed the bronze.
About an hour after winning gold medal No. 20 in the 200 butterfly, Phelps completed his grueling double with a triumphant four laps of the pool.
For Ledecky, the result nearly qualifies as a photo finish; her speed has often appeared unmatchable at the longer distances in which she dominates.
Phelps was not finished there, however, and went on to help the United States to a fourth successive victory in the 4x200m freestyle relay, alongside Ryan Lochte, Conor Dwyer and Townley Haas.
The Americans touched in 7:00.66, with Britain second in 7:03.13 and Japan in third after James Guy overhauled Takeshi Matsuda on the final leg. She swims hard whenever she mounts a starting block. “I didn’t have anything left to give in the last 50”.
On Tuesday night, in one of the most anticipated swim races of these Rio Olympics, Phelps and le Clos duked it out in a final le Clos predicted last summer would be “Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier”.
Ledecky is trying to become only the second female after Debbie Meyer in 1968 to capture the three longest freestyle events at a single Olympics.
Ledecky has another chance to swim for the gold in Wednesday night’s 4×200-meter free relay and the 800-meter freestyle on Friday, her signature event.
Australia’s Emma McKeon took the bronze with a time of 1:54.92. She owns the world record in that event. “That’s the closest I’ve ever come to throwing up after a race”. With his head almost at the wall, he took one more stroke to make sure he got there first, his arms slamming against the timing pad. By the next year, she was at 1:55.16, and maintained that identical mark in 2015, the year which produced a world title and was part of her 200-400-800-1500 sweep in Kazan.
The 200 may be the shortest race of the bunch but it’s definitely the hardest for Ledecky, requiring her to show both her speed and endurance against a far more competitive field.
“The 200 free is such a more stressful event for me than the 400 or the 800”, Ledecky said. “I couldn’t have gone any faster, it’s impossible”. “I just knew there wasn’t a shot in hell I was going to lose that race”. After a tense moment in the call room prior to Monday night’s semifinals, the two will now do battle in the water.
China’s Chen Roulin and partner Liu Huixia won gold in the synchronized diving with 354.00 points. The American appears all but certain to end the week with three golds, given her dominance over 800m.
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“You can never go in knowing that you’re going to make the team, just because the U.S. is one of the hardest countries to make the Olympic team because they’re so strong in every event”, Mr. Lochte told the AP. Williams wiped her forehead, picked up her rackets and headed back quickly to the locker room. Svitolina, who had never before played in an Olympics, smiled and stuck her arms out in front of her, palms up, as if waking up from a dream. Simone Biles and the American women’s gymnastics team are on the mat and the Brazilian women’s soccer team will try to pick up the slack for the celebrated men, who have underwhelmed early in the Olympics. Oleksandr Pyatnytsya tested positive for the steroid turinabol and was retroactively disqualified from the London Games and ordered to return his medal, the International Olympic Committee said.
