Leah Smith and Maya DiRado swam second and third respectively before Ledecky, who won the 400 freestyle on Sunday and 200 free on Tuesday, brought home the gold with a typically powerful swim from behind.
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For Lochte, it was his first individual swim in the Rio games.
The United States women have been dominant in this event in recent history, winning gold in the 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2012 games.
It hurt so much that Phelps made it his mission to exact revenge in Rio and win it one last time.
Japan’s Masato Sakai ran second in the butterfly to collect the silver; Hungary’s Tamas Kenderesi won bronze.
Tamsin Cook touched out for Australia in 7:44.57 and Canada’s anchor Penny Oleksiak finished close behind in 7:45.39 with China fourth.
With the 200-meter butterfly and 4×200 freestyle relay now completed, Phelps will be gunning for what could be more gold medals to add to his illustrious collection. From 164 to 152 BCE, Leonidas had won gold medals in three ancient foot races, but it’s also been stressed that the record may be of “dubious” nature. But some of them count more than others.
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“Just being able to see the number 1 next to my name again, one more time in the 200 fly, I couldn’t have scripted it any better”, he said.
