First, a note on how fast eight minutes would be: Since the ban on body-length and non-textile swimsuits in 2009, no woman other than Ledecky has managed to swim under four minutes in the 400-meter freestyle. The outcome of the race was never in doubt, and the Brazilian crowd loudly urged Ledecky on in pursuit of a new standard of greatness in the longest female Olympic swimming event.
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The 35-year-old Ervin won his first gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, tying teammate Gary Hall Jr. for the top spot.
She also followed fellow swimmers Amy Van Dyken and Missy Franklin as the only American women to win as many as four golds in a single Olympics. Ledecky also anchored the gold-medal-winning 800 freestyle relay for the US and helped the 400 freestyle relay to silver. Just two days later, she struck gold again in the 200 free.
“We have a great history and I think we’re making a lot of new history this week”. Still with 22 Gold medals, four of which he bagged in Rio, Phelps is by far the best swimmer to ever dive into the Olympic pool.
Ledecky is moving to Stanford University later this year. She holds the world record in the event, clocking 8:06.68 at the Arena Pro Swim Series at Austin in January.
“I hope so”, she said.
She won the race at London 2012 as a 15-year-old and she was a class apart in her heat here, touching the wall almost seven seconds clear of her rivals and then complaining she had not had enough sleep to be at her best.
Jazz Karlin finally touched in 8:16.17 to claim the silver, just ahead of Hungary’s Boglarka Kapas grabbing the bronze in 8:16.37.
“I’ll try to use that in the final but make sure I’ve got enough in the bank for the last half of the race”.
Ledecky was barely breathing hard.
In tonight’s race, and in many performances since the London Olympics, Ledecky has shown she’s intent on fulfilling that potential.
Ledecky won her third gold medal and fourth overall at the Rio Olympics despite Team USA’s slow start in the freestyle relay. So technically, this hypothetical gold medal count is really six, not nine, which would still leave Maryland tied for third in terms of gold medals.
Phelps shared the silver with rivals Chad le Clos of South Africa and Laszlo Cseh of Hungary.
In July 2013, she took possession of that world record, with a time of 15:36.53.
Phelps quickly swam over to congratulate Schooling, who seemed stunned by what he had done. “It’s just insane”, said Schooling. The Nationals replayed the final stages of the race on the video scoreboard during the seventh-inning stretch.
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Katie Ledecky annihilated her competition Wednesday to win gold for the U.S.in the 4×200-meter freestyle relay.
