Katie Ledecky of the United States finally succumbed to her emotions on the podium after destroying the field in the 800 meters freestyle on Friday and smashing her own world record to complete a rare Olympic swimming treble.
Advertisement
The first of Katie’s Gold in Rio came in the 400m, even on that occasion she smashed her own World Record by over 2 seconds and her nearest competitor finished five seconds behind.
Katie Ledecky continued her dominance in the women’s 800-meter freestyle in Rio on Friday, earning her second consecutive gold in the event with a world-record time of eight minutes, 4.79 seconds. It’s the fifth gold of her career – she won the 800-meter freestyle in London, shocking the field as a 15-year-old.
Taking silver behind her in the 800m free was Canada’s Jazz Carlin; the bronze went to Boglarka Kapas of Hungary.
So it was only natural that she would be asked about Simone Manuel’s stunning gold medal in the 100 freestyle the night before. Regardless, she managed to take home a gold medal for the 800-meter freestyle.
Ledecky’s world-record 3:56.46 in the 400-freestyle made her only the second woman in history to swim the event in under four minutes.
“I had a lot of fun tonight”, she said afterwards, according to a transcript from the Olympic News Service.
Bethesda’s Ashley Nee came up short of qualifying for K-1 Whitewater kayaking finals with her run Thursday.
The stunning victory on August 12 gave Ledecky, 19, of Maryland, her fourth gold in Rio and fifth medal. “I hit all my goals right on the nose this week”, she said. At an age of just 19 years, this young swimmer has set 13 World Records in her short career.
“Just kind of the end of a 4-year journey”, she said as the tears flowed.
But it was Phelps who stole the show yet again when he sprang from the block to swim the butterfly leg of the 4×100 medley relay, recapturing the lead from Britain and setting up yet another US victory, after Ryan Murphy had led off by breaking the world backstroke record. It gave Ledecky her fourth gold medal and bested the second place swimmer by an impressive 11 seconds.
Phelps shared the silver with two other longtime rivals, Chad le Clos of South Africa and Laszlo Cseh of Hungary.
Advertisement
GOLD FOR CARTER: American Michelle Carter won the country’s first medal since 1960 in shot put – and a gold one, at that – using her last throw of the night (20.63 meters) to beat two-time defending champion Valerie Adams of New Zealand.
