A few vendors left their stations and crammed into the aisles.
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She grabbed hold of it Friday night, etching her name into the record books.
Behold the stories of her legendary training regimen: 5am and 3pm practices in the pool at Georgetown Prep with dryland training in between.
The U.S. track and field team’s meet is off to an exciting start: Michelle Carter won the women’s shot put event.
Katie Ledecky was a full body length ahead of her nearest rival after only 100 meters of her 800-meter freestyle final at the Rio Olympics.
In 1968, a teenager in North Dakota watched transfixed as Debbie Meyer won the 200-, 400- and 800-meter freestyles at the Mexico City Olympics. “Then there was the 200, and I was a little bit disappointed with that (she failed to qualify for the final)”. As the youngest member of the United States team surged away down the final 50 meters, it looked as if she was swimming all by herself. Ledecky owns the 13 fastest times in the history of this race.
Ledecky met all of them, completing a dominant quad that has included 18 major global meet gold medals, 13 long-course meters world records and the title of face of the USA swim team, now that Michael Phelps is retiring. I love the Olympics.
It wasn’t Ledecky versus the field or versus history’s best; it was Ledecky versus Ledecky. That suggests that if she wanted to try to go in a different direction, her talent might be sufficient to make her a champion there, too.
Fox News came up with 11 “insane facts” to highlight how unusual Ledecky’s victory was; among them: “If you take the margin of victory in every single men’s race in Rio, the combined time is 6.66 seconds”.
Before she turned up, it was 8:14.10, set by Great Britain’s Rebecca Adlington in Beijing in 2008. She remains unbeaten in worldwide competition. She made the team, but it would be an understatement to say she’s made a splash in Rio.
The impression one gets is that if Ledecky kicked harder, if she did what her competitors are doing, it would only disrupt her mystifying propulsion.
In July 2013, she took possession of that world record, with a time of 15:36.53. But Ledecky was still alone at her end of the pool.
The fans were in a fever.
One second, two seconds, three.
“The best team did not win today, ” she added.
Katie Ledecky on the starting blocks in the 800m freestyle heats. The command whipped the crowd into a broiling froth.
“She is already considered the best female swimmer in the world at the moment”, he wrote.
It was special, indeed: With a time of 8:04.79, Ledecky obliterated her own Olympic record of 8:12.86 (set in a qualifying heat in Rio), and took her world record down by nearly two seconds. Ledecky will probably be cheering from the stands, thinking about flying home next week.
Overall in Rio, Ledecky won four gold medals and one silver, setting two world records.
Her split time of 4:01.98 would have won the bronze medal in the women’s 400 final on Sunday.
Saturday night, when it was all over, King looked back on her week.
“I just wanted to lay it all out there”, Ledecky said.
“I’ll know we’ll set some team goals, which will be probably more important than my individual goals for the next year”, she said. “I couldn’t have gone any faster”, said the Swede of the American.
Her face broke out into a wide smile, one that was hiding a well of tears.
It wasn’t long before someone asked her about the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
American Katie Ledecky is the most dominant swimmer on the planet. At age 19, she’s both the youngest member of the US swim team and its most sure-thing victor.
Nothing is guaranteed in swimming. As of yet, there are no plans to turn professional as Missy Franklin did after two seasons at Cal.
Joining Ledecky in the race was teammate Leah Smith, who took sixth place in 8:20.95. “The possibilities are endless for her”.
The 25-year-old is allowed to compete in the Olympics as she trains in the U.S. and has undergone regular drug tests over the last two years.
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New goals? Not yet decided. But DiRado came on strong on the final lap and beat Hosszu at the touch to win in 2 minutes, 5.99 seconds.
