He has one more race Tuesday night, anchoring the US team in the 4×200-meter freestyle relay.
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In the women’s freestyle race that kicked off the medal events in the late-night session at Rio’s aquatic center, Ledecky edged Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom by 0.35 seconds with a finishing time of 1:53.73.
Although she dominated the field in the 400-metre final, winning gold and breaking her own world record in the process, the 19-year-old star prefers the longer race distances.
Ledecky represented the Americans’ only medal hopes in the event, as Missy Franklin did not advance out of the semifinals.
Ledecky’s winning margin of 4.77 seconds underlined her total dominance of the event.
It didn’t sit well with the American superstar, who got off to a rousing start to the Rio Games by leading the 4×100 freestyle team to gold.
The first of four finals being swum tonight is the 200-meter freestyle on the women’s side.
Ledecky overcame a queasy feeling in the race which had nothing to do with whether she would win or lose.
It was an especially sweet victory for King after Efimova taunted her following Sunday’s semifinals.
Despite the tie, the US still won the four-team Group G and will advance to a quarterfinal match in the capital Brasilia on Friday.
In her preliminary heat for the 400m freestyle she broke Camille Muffat’s Olympic record, set four years ago in London, by more than two seconds with a time of 3:58.71.
“Going into the finish I said, ‘If I have to take a half-stroke, I’m going to take a half stroke, ‘” Phelps said.
They’re tied with China for the most gold medals. Emma McKeon of Australia, Barratt’s countrywoman, has medaled in this event before in the 2014 Commonwealth Games and was a gold medalist in the 400 free in this Olympics already.
Katie Ledecky tried for her third medal of the Rio Olympics Tuesday. They do not let women swim the 1500m freestyle in the Olympics, an approach left over from the time when women were thought to be too frail to run the marathon (no more) or to play fullcourt basketball (have you seen Maya Moore?) or to box or wrestle. By 100 meters, she had pulled up to second, with McKeon still in the lead.
Ervin still earned a gold medal for the race, the third medal of his career.
A celebratory occasion for a Thai Olympic bronze medal winner’s family has turned somber – the athlete’s grandmother collapsed and died minutes before he won the third place in the 56-kilogram weightlifting category in Rio.
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Hosszu was challenged much of the way by Siobhán Marie O’Connor of Team GB, who eventually took silver. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, she deferred her enrollment by a year to give her time to train for Rio.
