The Americans’ second straight Olympic triumph was never in doubt, their score of 184.897 at the Rio Games more than eight points clear of the field.
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It was the clearest sign yet of the changing of the guard on the US women’s swim team.
Phelps avenged his defeat at the 2012 London Games by winning the 200-meter butterfly on Tuesday night, holding off Japan’s Masato Sakai by a mere four-hundredths of a second.
She’s endured a mystifying loss of form since turning pro a year ago, struggling just to qualify for two individual events and a relay at the US trials.
Plenty of illuminating star power for the Rio Games on Tuesday. She crushed her world record in the 400m freestyle to win gold and jump-start a potentially historic Rio campaign on Monday.
“To see 3:56 feels really good”, said Ledecky, who now owns the six fastest times ever in the event and is one of only two women even to break four minutes.
Franklin seems to have accepted her fate. Afterward, a tearful Szogedi said she was “gutted”. Ledecky now has the 200 and 400 titles, and she’s an overwhelming favorite to win the 800.
She is just the second Cardinal to medal in the event, joining Summer Sanders’ silver-medal performance in Barcelona in 1992.
Ledecky earned a gold medal in the 200-meter freestyle, and DiRado captured the bronze in the 200-meter individual medley. Franklin, with a lighter schedule, is out of the spotlight, and waited three days for her first race.
It was a tremendous reversal four years after Franklin dazzled London, not just with her record-breaking swimming but also with her goofy teenage ways and utterly winning personality.
“On the block I thought my heart was going to explode, I was so hyped, so excited”, said Phelps.
Ledecky, of course, is aiming so much higher.
Chad le Clos of South Africa, who beat Phelps for gold in this event in 2012, will join Phelps in the same semifinal heat after posting 1:55.75.
To get out there, it felt so good to just kind of get in the water and race again. I came out tonight and took the first 50 easy and came back with everything I have got. For the protection of AP and its licensors, content may not be copied, altered or redistributed in any form.
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