The Americans won it for the fourth consecutive time Tuesday in 7:00.66. The 12-time world series champions and one of the leading contenders for the first rugby medals awarded at an Olympics in 92 years, the New Zealanders struggled against the high-energy team from Japan.
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Brazil, meanwhile, with victories against Sweden and China (and a draw against South Africa) sits atop its group.The quarterfinals start Friday.
Hungarian swimmer Katinka Hosszu won her third gold medal and set a new Olympic record Tuesday after she glided to victory in the 200 meter individual medley with a time of 2:6.58.
She is the current world record-holder in the 400, 800 and 1,500 freestyles. Her star turn at the Rio Games, with two gold medals and a silver in the 4×100-meter relay, is complete; her ability to make it even more luminescent remains a distinct possibility.
“I’m just thankful, that’s for sure, I wanted that one back”, he said. He held off Japan’s Masato Sakai by four-hundredths of a second, with Hungary’s Tamas Kenderesi taking the bronze.
The win took Phelps, who celebrated by wagging a solitary finger before sitting on a lane rope with his arms outstretched, to 20 golds -more than Jamaica had achieved in their entire Olympic history, befitting with the other dominant figure of the modern Olympics, Usain Bolt, among those watching in the stands.
Ledecky also claimed silver in the 4×100 free relay and has two more races to go, setting herself up for a medal haul that would fully live up to the enormous expectations she faced coming into the Olympics. She has one more to go, the 800 meters, where she is virtually unchallenged.
Katie Ledecky, the American who astonished the world with her gold-medal-crushing 400m freestyle swim on Sunday, also won her second gold medal of the Games in the 200m swim.
She has raced 14 times in major worldwide meets and won every time, the most recent coming Tuesday night in Rio de Janeiro in the 200-meter freestyle event.
For Ledecky, the result nearly qualifies as a photo finish; her speed has often appeared unmatchable at the longer distances in which she dominates.
Franklin, who won four golds in London four years ago but suffered a dramatic loss of form at the USA trials, swam in the heats and collected a gold for doing so despite being dropped for the final.
“I’ve come pretty close in practice a few times, so I’m pretty used to it”, she said.
“Going into the finish I said, ‘If I have to take a half-stroke, I’m going to take a half stroke, ‘” Phelps said.
In April 2014, he said the concept of returning to his signature swim, with which he so vehemently announced his presence to the Olympic stage 10 years earlier, “had definitely gone”. “I want what’s best for us and best for our country, no matter what”.
“I’m so exhausted I can’t even think straight”, Phelps said an hour later. “I’m just so glad I got my hand on the wall first”.
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Ledecky, just 19, won her second gold. Sjostrom pushed her hard over the last 50 meters and earned silver in 1:54.08. “I took it out pretty fast and kind of forced everybody to try to do that”. Maya DiRado of the United States held on for the bronze.
