Rachael Larimore of the Dallas Morning News asks, why isn’t one of Ledecky’s best events part of the Olympic games?
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Smith, who was thrilled to finish less than two seconds behind Ledecky in the 400m free at the United States trials, said she knew Ledecky was primed for something big.
Her time was her 12th world record and was nearly five seconds quicker than silver medallist Jazz Carlin of Britain. She positioned herself to challenge the world record in the final 50 meters – this is a frequent theme – but missed it by fourth-tenths of a second.
The 19-year-old American, who set her previous marker in 2014, led from the off as she left her opponents in her wake, touching the wall in three minutes and 56.46 seconds.
Sjostrom was the first to shine, a time of 55.48 seconds in the 100m butterfly enough for her to triumph by a wide margin and become the first Swedish woman to claim an Olympic gold medal in the pool. I just always enjoyed swimming with him and I think that’s how I really found my love of the sport.
About an hour earlier Katie Ledecky bested the world record and easily coasted to gold in the 400-meter freestyle.
“She’s a mystery. She has this energy stirring in her, not just at meets but at practice”. Since then, however, the record has stood against Ledecky’s repeated assaults in the two years leading up to these Olympics.
“That’s the fastest 100 free I’ve ever gone in my career, so I hope that’s a good sign”, Phelps said. She crushed the mark of 3:58.37 that she set almost two years ago on the Gold Coast of Australia, and had been chasing ever since.
“It felt a lot like this afternoon in the qualifying heat”, Ledecky said.
In other heats, newly crowned 400m individual medley champion Katinka Hosszu of Hungary set an Olympic record as she dominated the 200m IM prelims with a best time of 2:07.45. Not only did she win the gold, she beat her own world record by almost two full seconds.
Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom extended Saturday’s record spree in winning the 100 meters butterfly, and Peaty and Ledecky followed suit in the next two finals before the USA men’s team, with Phelps swimming second, took the 4×100 freestyle relay. 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. Though she held the top spot in the world ranking for much of the year, with a 1:54.43 from January, she was passed last month by Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom (1:54.34).
Title holder Cameron van der Burgh of South Africa took silver in 58.69 and American Cody Miller bronze in 58.87.
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Long said their feats of strength made them the world’s strongest men.
