The 19-year-old turned in another overpowering performance to carry the United States to victory in the 4×200-meter freestyle relay, capturing her third gold and fourth medal overall at the Rio Olympics.
Advertisement
Ledecky turned in a split of 1 minute, 53.74 seconds, which was almost 2.5 seconds faster than her next-fastest teammate, Allison Schmitt in 1:56.21.
Phelps was swimming the morning after winning the 20th and 21st gold medals of his career in the 200m butterfly and the 4x200m freestyle relay, in which Lochte won his sixth gold.
Lochte, 32, thought Rio might finally be the Games when it was “my turn” to shine in the spotlight Phelps has monopolized since 2004. This will likely be the final time these two compete, as Phelps has said he’s all but assuredly done with competitive swimming after these Games. Lochte joined with Phelps to win gold Tuesday in the 4 X 200 free relay, but he’s gotten more attention for a dye job gone awry.
“Wow! That was one that’ll I’ll always remember”, Phelps said on Instagram. As for the other medal events on the night, the women’s 200 meter butterfly was one of the closes races yet, as Spain’s Mireia Belmonte edged out Australia’s Madeline Groves.
The U.S. hovered in second place throughout the remainder of the race just behind Australia. “We’ll have one more time to hop in the pool and duke it out”. The third swimmer is the key to making up for any lost ground and Maya swam her heart out, keeping a good pace against the Australian leaders. Lochte, the world record-holder at 1:54.00, has won every world championships 200 IM since 2009.
Advertisement
The 31-year-old added: “I’ve been able to put my body through things like this over the years and hopefully I can keep it rolling one last time”. But Josh Prenot and Kevin Cordes could end that. All I know is I love racing against him. It will be another chance for Phelps to add a gold medal.
