The medal was Phelps’ 23rd total, also a record.
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Ledecky’s victory was not an upset.
Since she last lowered her world record in the women’s 400-meter freestyle, 24 months ago in Australia, Katie Ledecky has graduated from high school, enrolled at Stanford, had her wisdom teeth pulled and blossomed into the dominant female swimmer of her era.
Ledecky’s gold set a precedent for the remaining relay of the night, the men’s 4×100 m that featured Michael Phelps’ first race in Rio. She broke it twice within a span of two weeks in August 2014 – the second coming at the Pan Pacific Championships – but she has not bettered it since, despite taking another 20 or so cracks at it in those two years.
The 19-year-old smashed her own world record to win in a time of 3:56.46 – almost five seconds ahead of her closest rival. “I’m pumped. I was so close to breaking it (this morning)”, Ledecky said. “So we started working on speed and trying to get better at the 400 and 200 over that year, and I think as I started to drop time I kind of realized, ‘Yeah I can be a player in all those events on the global stage.’ And each year, I’ve just tried to set myself up for this year”. I knew I was the big favourite. Ledecky, a rising freshman at Stanford, owns the 10 all-time fastest performances in the 400.
Ledecky, who added gold to the silver she won in the women’s 4×100 free relay, is also favored in other two individual events: the 200 and 800 free.
Kathleen Genevieve Ledecky 19, was born March 17, 1997, is an American competitive swimmer, two-time Olympic gold medalist, and nine-time world champion. Phelps is expected to only participate in the final.
With his fiancée, mother and baby son swaddled in a stars-and-stripes carrier in the stands, Phelps swam the second leg of the relay with Caeleb Dressel, Ryan Held and Nathan Adrian and led the field including reigning world champions France, in all but one turn. The race was over about the time it began.
The time for the winning swim was 3:09:92.
Leah Smith of the United States won bronze.
Hosszu holds the world record in the event of 2:06.12, set a year ago when she won world championships gold. Phelps, in his first race at his fifth Olympics, gave the USA the lead with a strong second leg. Ryan Held and Nathan Adrian, the defending Olympic champion in the 100-meter freestyle, didn’t relinquish it. Peaty cruisied away from defending Olympic champion Cameron van der Burgh of South Africa, who took silver in a time of 58.69.
She swam a 3:56 in the finals.
The 2016 Olympics kicked off last week in Rio, and a few world records have already been shattered.
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She was one of a number of Russians who argued successfully that excluding them from the Olympics would be punishing them again for the same offense.
