“I have been working with a sports psychologist on that side of things as well and not just the physical side”. Ledecky already owned all of the top-10 times in the history of the 800 free, and this adds another layer to her dominance.
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“I hit all my goals right on the nose this week”, Ledecky said.
Four years earlier she was the youngest athlete in the United States delegation, but even then the 15-year-old had won Gold in her pet event, the 800M, in London. Not one to waste any time (obviously), she starts on September 9.
“The fact she has backed up silver in the 400m and come away with two silver medals at an Olympic Games is just fantastic, ” said Adlington.
She’s now the first female swimmer to sweep the 200, 400 and 800 since Debbie Meyer did it in the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico.
Ledecky’s coach, Bruce Gemmell, said Ledecky’s “biggest internal motivator is getting better, it’s raising the bar”.
She called it “a testament to the vision that Bruce and I had three years ago when we set these goals, and we weren’t going to stop until we met them”.
Then, Ledecky played the waiting game, hanging on the rope for a while to let the rest of the field finish.
Ledecky finished 11.38 seconds ahead of the silver medalist from Britain Jazz Carlin and Carlin was just two-tenths of a second better than the bronze medalist from Hungary Boglarka Kapas.
Some 23 seconds after Ledecky touched the wall, the last of the eight finalists finally got to the end of the grueling race.
Ledecky was barely breathing hard. Probably the greatest complement to her was given by the Executive Director of USA Swimming Chuck Wielgus who said, “I don’t think we’ve ever seen anybody like Katie before”. “I could feel that it’s faster than any other swim I’ve had in that event”. Given Ledecky’s age, she could break that record easily in 2020 if she maintains her current dominance.
“A three-way tie is pretty wild”, Phelps said. Ledecky is not sure yet what she’ll study, but she’s looking forward to being just another college freshman. “I am heading home in a couple of days and I’ll have to get all my stuff for my dorm and get everything ready”. Sjostrom herself had won Gold in the 100M butterfly 2 days before but when competing against the 19-year-old torpedo, Sarah knew there was going to be only one victor.
Former double Olympic champion Rebecca Adlington praised Carlin’s silver double at Rio and insists her success in Brazil has “written off” any disappointment from London 2012.
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“It hasn’t really sunk in yet”, Schooling said. “I think there are some pressures that come with being a professional swimmer, and I don’t think I am ready for that”.
