Here are the biggest storylines to watch for Saturday at the Rio Olympics.
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First up, Baltimore’s Michael Phelps sought his fourth consecutive gold medal in the 100-meter butterfly final, the last individual race of his 16-year Olympic career.
She put the world on notice with another gold – and another world record – in the 400 free.
Phelps, however, started too slowly, hitting the 50-meter turn in sixth place.
Above them stepped Schooling, having finished in an Olympic-record 50.39 seconds, exactly three-quarters of a second before the trio of silvers. “And I just wanted to make this meet count and have a lot of fun with it”. She took gold in the women’s 200m freestyle, 400m freestyle, 4x200m freestyle relay and just last night, the 800m freestyle. “It’s pretty insane. And there is probably somebody working hard right now, seeing the examples they are setting, who is going to be just like them or maybe even be better than them”. “I’m accepting the race that I had tonight”.
The women’s race is set for 10:49 p.m. local time in Brazil, which is an hour ahead of U.S. East Coast time. He and Ledecky, who grew up 45 minutes apart in different Maryland suburbs, have totaled 10 medals at these games, eight of them gold.
DiRado’s upset denied Hosszu a fourth gold in Rio, and capped off a remarkable one-and-done Olympics for the American. Phelps’ greatness begat another sort of greatness: the unimpeachable future filled with those who want to be like him. Rather than cashing in on a week as the focal point of these Olympics, she’ll tuck away her gold medals somewhere and head for Palo Alto, Calif., to swim and study.
What’s really exciting, is that she could have plenty more to offer us.
Jazz Carlin has admitted her two Olympic silvers in Rio is after she “finally started believing” following advice from a sports psychologist. “I’m really bad at it”.
“That’s just pure joy and surprise and excitement”, she said.
“It’s surreal, kind of absurd and, you know, when I touched, turned around and saw the one next to my name, I kind of smiled and laughed”, Ervin said. I don’t know what it would have looked like if I had gone professional. “I need to chill by myself and realize what I’ve done”.
Sweden coach Pia Sundhage, who coached the USA team to Olympic gold medals in Beijing and London, quipped: “It’s OK to be a coward if you win”. It’s not winning an Olympic medal, it isn’t setting a world record, it wasn’t becoming the best in the world.
“There’s nothing I can do”, Phelps said after Friday’s race.
Ledecky did not have the best night’s sleep. She famously set a British record in the same event at London 2012.
The U.S. holds the world and Olympic records in this event – 3:27.28 for the world record that was set in 2009 and 3:29.34 for the Olympic mark that dates to Beijing 2008.
Her quest for a new 800 frontier felt like a valedictory address as much as a race. Then she waited for the rest of the field to finish. In London, she swam this relay with Rebecca Soni, Allison Schmitt, and Bonnie Franklin.
Katie Ledecky came into the Rio Olympics facing enormous expectations.
“She gave a little snicker”, Schmitt said.
“This is the first time I’ve ever seen her in tears”, added Ledecky’s superstar teammate.
Ledecky’s admirers include numerous biggest names in the sport.
She’s already got a job lined up in Atlanta after the Olympics and made it clear she would be retiring no matter the results. She’s so young, and she has so much determination. “Being able to close the door on this sport how I want to – that’s why I’m happy now”. “There’s no doubt in my mind”.
Her 400 split of 4:01.98 would have won the bronze in the 400 final last Sunday.
“She’s doing times that women have never done before because she’s not afraid to think outside the box”, Phelps said.
For Katie Ledecky, there is more-so much more-to come. “I think she will be over the moon”. Katie doesn’t swim as many events.
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The American swimmers continued making progress.
