Katie Ledecky won her fourth gold in the Rio Olympics with a world-record time in the 800-meter freestyle.
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The only previous woman to win the 200, 400 and 800 freestyle at the same Games was American Debbie Meyer in 1968.
Some athletes might’ve buckled under the pressure.
Jazz Carlin has won a second silver medal in the Rio Olympics after she took second in the women’s 800m freestyle. “Right from the start”, Ledecky said in a post-race interview on deck. Ledecky qualified for first place in the event Thursday with an Olympic record swim of 8:12.86.
Meyer and Ledecky have bonded of their shared greatness.
Before the 800, the former swimming great sent along a video message that was forwarded to Katie.
With four gold medals at these games and 22 for his career, Phelps has an opportunity to pick up one more before he leaves Rio. The New York Times points out that Ledecky can’t leave her lane until the others finish. She earned bronze in the 400 freestyle on Sunday before winning gold with the United States 4×200 freestyle relay on Wednesday.
Ledecky will rightly look to enjoy her success but things can change quickly in swimming.
Anthony Ervin, meanwhile, triumphed in the men’s 50m freestyle at the age of 35, some 16 years on from winning the same event at the Sydney Olympics.
Ledecky’s coach, Bruce Gemmell, said, “Her biggest internal motivator is getting better, it’s raising the bar”.
She shattered it again in Rio, blowing by the 8:06.68 that she set in January 2016.
The 19-year-old sensation made it five medals – four of them gold – at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium on Friday, as she destroyed the field in world record time, clocking eight minutes and 4.79 seconds to comfortably better her own landmark.
And while she finished nearly 12 seconds behind American teen sensation Katie Ledecky, Carlin hung on for silver ahead of Hungary’s Boglarka Kapas.
“I’ll try to use that in the final but make sure I’ve got enough in the bank for the last half of the race”.
It’s hard to describe just how good Ledecky is without it sounding hyperbolic. It’s safe to say she’d rather talk about others than herself. Tears streamed down her face as the national anthem played during the medal ceremony, her history-making week finally over. After this not-so-relaxing summer, she’ll be heading there in the fall. “I just wanted to push myself and see what I could do”.
“Last night, I probably got the most sleep I’ve gotten all week”.
Leah Smith, Ledecky’s USA teammate and the fourth-place qualifier in Thursday’s heats, recalled swimming against her in Austin in January and hearing the public-address announcer blurt out the new world record just as Ledecky touched the wall. Ledecky is not sure yet what she’ll study, but she’s looking forward to being just another college freshman. “It’ll be tough leaving home, but I’m excited for the next chapter”.
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“It is perhaps the only time she knows the feeling of being a prisoner of her success”, wrote Times reporter Karen Crouse. “It’s just insane”, Schooling said. “I don’t think I would have ever come to that realization without something like this”.
