However, she was off her own world record time of 8:06.68.
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By the time Ledecky got in the pool for her leg, the Americans were.89 behind the Aussies.
Balandin chased down Yasuhiro Koseki of Japan, who led at the halfway mark and held off a late charge from silver medalist Josh Prenot of the U.S. Prenot finished in 2:07.53, just seven one-hundreths of a second behind Balandin’s 2:07.46. It was DiRado’s third Olympic medal, and Smith’s second. In an earlier tweet, he shared a photo of two-time Olympic gold medal victor Michael Jordan holding Ledecky as a toddler, with the caption, “Michael Jordan got 2 gold medals”.
(AP Photo/Lee Jin-man). Kazakhstan’s Dmitriy Balandin celebrates winning gold in the men’s 200-meter breaststroke during the swimming competitions at the 2016 Summer Olympics, Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
“All I know is I love racing against him”, said Lochte, 32.
Hagen had never swam competitively before joining the team at CGF, but whatever aquatic chops she gained in Great Falls were clearly passed down to her daughter Katie who grew up in Maryland.
On a cold night in Rio’s Olympic Aquatics Stadium, the US women hooked their cars to the Ledecky Train and rode it to another gold medal for Team USA – this one in the women’s 4 x 200 freestyle relay.
Balandin touched in 2 minutes, 7.46 seconds. The Americans have won the race five of the six times it has been contested in the Olympics.
“I had just flipped for my last 50”, Smith said, “and I kind of was like, ‘Well, this probably isn’t a good race for me, just doing the math'”.
She now owns the 12 fastest times in history.
Until now, Balandin’s biggest achievement was winning three breaststroke gold medals at the 2014 Asian Games. He also captured gold previous year in the World University Games.
After two silvers and a bronze, the Spanish swimmer made it to the top rung of the podium with a victory Wednesday night. Russia’s Anton Chupkov landed the bronze in 2:07.70, with Koseki fading to fifth. “It’s the best thing I can do for my country”.
Belmonte Garcia claimed a pair of silver medals in London, including a runner-up finish in the 200 fly. She missed the 200 free final in her only other individual event in Rio.
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China led at the start before Australia, with Emma McKeon swimming the second leg, handed over in the lead to Bronte Barratt. Natsumi Hoshi took the bronze in 2:05.20.
