Rio de Janeiro: Katie Ledecky of the United States broke her own world record on Sunday on the way to winning the women’s 400 metres freestyle gold medal, the first stage of a rare treble she hopes to complete at the Rio Olympics.
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Sunday night saw America earning its first swimming gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics. After beating her record in the 400-meter freestyle, Ledecky is now setting her eyes on an event that she is yet to dominate – the 200-meter freestyle.
And U.S. swimmers are predicted to win at least 21 more medals this week in Rio. They took turns driving and singing, and even Phelps took a turn at the wheel – as well as Ledecky, who was too young to have a driver’s license at the London Games.
Ledecky is the youngest competitor on the US swim team but one of the most dominant swimmers in the pool.
Now, it’s Ledecky who is poised to be the biggest women’s star in Rio.
Later this week, Ledecky will compete in the 800-meter freestyle – the event in which she won a gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics. She was part of the US team that won silver in the 4x100m relay final on Saturday.
Franklin seems to have accepted her fate.
Swimming phenomenon Katie Ledecky has managed to crush her most challenging opponent to date – her 17-year-old self. In 1999, when Ledecky was two-years-old, her uncle Jon partnered with Ted Leonsis to purchase a stake of the Capitals and Wizards. “I’m really focusing on making sure I’m doing everything I can to be the best I can be right now”.
On Saturday, the USA took home three silvers, two of which came in races where the winners set new world records.
First of all, the Olympics are a harder place to set a world record than many other competitions.
Italy’s Federica Pellegrini, who set the world record of 1:52.98 in 2009 in a now-banned synthetic body suit, was fifth fastest and expecting fireworks in Tuesday’s final.
Ledecky was beaming as she stood on the podium, hand over her heart as “The Star-Spangled Banner” played throughout the stadium.
“It’s like if you had runners going back to dirt tracks”, Joyner says.
Her next fastest split? I’ve been on Twitter for a few days.
“Before the start I said to myself it’s just a pool”.
There was much to admire throughout Sunday’s evening session, but Ledecky’s victory was arguably the most staggering of all – the outcome certain nearly from the outset.
Nothing less than gold in any of her remaining events will do.
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“I think I probably got to sleep at about 3am and I was on an 11am bus, ” said Phelps.
