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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In the women’s 200m backstroke, Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu remained on course for her fourth individual gold of the Games after leading the way in two minutes 06.09 seconds, ahead of Canada’s Hillary Caldwell.
No one can foretell the future of Ledecky because she is unpredictable, very young and already impervious to the severity of high-level swimming competitions. That would be the 800-meter freestyle, which is coming up on Thursday. “Watching my team-mates finishing the race, I kind of started welling up and thinking, ‘We’re going to win an Olympic gold medal.’ It was just so awesome”.
U.S. swimmer Katie Ledecky broke her own world record on the way to winning the women’s 400m freestyle gold medal, in what she hopes will be the first stage of a rare treble win. He cruised away from Cameron van der Burgh of South Africa, the defending Olympic champion who took silver this time in 58.69.
Her best at the moment isn’t anywhere close to the form she showed four years ago.
Sjostrom is the fastest qualifier headed into the final and heads into tonight as a co-favorite with Ledecky.
“That would mean the world to me”, she said. I knew I was due for a break there.
“I touched the wall and looked around and thought ‘where is everybody?’ Peaty told reporters”.
Katie Ledecky’s dominance continued Wednesday night with her anchoring an authoritative American victory in the 800-meter freestyle relay.
Before he was her Olympic teammate, swimming superstar Michael Phelps was one of Ledecky’s idols.
Ledecky arguably outdid her compatriot, however, by shattering the world record to win the 400m freestyle, the first American gold medal in the pool at Rio 2016.
Ledecky anchored the 4×100 free team that set a United States record and earned silver behind Australia on Saturday. Phelps is expected to only participate in the final.
The other American swimmer of note in the 200-meter women’s freestyle semi on Monday: Missy Franklin.
Katie Ledecky has never felt such pain.
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“Three fifty six was the goal I set after Barcelona 2013 [World Championships]”, she said.
