Michael Phelps looked at the scoreboard and found his name in a familiar place Tuesday night at the Olympics Aquatics Center.
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No question, he’s No. 1. Phelps also anchored the victorious 800-meter freestyle team to run his record medal total to 25 – 21 of them gold.
That will be Ledecky’s last swim in what has already been an extraordinary Olympics. He gestured to the crowd for more applause, and their cheers rained down. I had no idea whether I touched first. “That’s what I wanted and I had been so close to breaking that all year, the past two years”.
The five-time Olympian took the lead after one lap in his signature event. Tamas Kenderesi won the bronze only.026 of a second behind.
Throughout his spectacular career, Phelps’ signature event was the 200-meter butterfly. I wanted another picture with him on the medal stand.
Still as a gathering storm.
This may be the shortest race on Ledecky’s program but it’s definitely her toughest, requiring both speed and endurance against a far more competitive field. Ledecky is the current world record-holder in the 400, 800 and 1,500 freestyles.
Ledecky turned in a split of 1 minute, 53.74 seconds, which was almost 2.5 seconds faster than her next-fastest teammate, Allison Schmitt in 1:56.21.
Up next for Ledecky is the 800-meter freestyle.
Am I the only one curious to know what the girl standing behind Ledecky is up to these days? “Everything hurt at the end, but I am happy that it hurt as it meant I pushed myself to the max”. After less than two minutes, the fight was over: Silva took Szogedi down and caught her in a stranglehold. Emma McKeon of Australia won the bronze medal. “I took it out pretty fast and kind of forced everybody to try to do that”.
Ledecky said she had got to bed at about 3.15 a.m and, not being one for sleeping in, was up again at about 9 a.m.
Nearly everyone finishes behind the United States in the men’s 800 freestyle relay. The Americans are going for their fourth consecutive Olympic gold. Hungary’s Laszlo Cseh was second quickest in 51.52, while American Tom Shields was third at 51.58. His time of 1:44.14 gave the Americans an insurmountable lead.
“This has all been in my training plan since January, and I qualified with the top result”, Hovorov said.
This was the second consecutive gold for the American women, and included two returning members from the winning 2012 team, Gabby Douglas and Aly Raisman. Phelps still has the 100 butterfly and possibly the medley relay to go.
The medal was the fourth of the Rio Games for Ledecky, the third for DiRado and the second for Schmitt and Smith. The unassuming teenager from suburban Washington has dominated the longer freestyle events since winning gold in the 800 free at the London Olympics as a 15-year-old.
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Defending Olympic champion France was leading when Phelps dove into the water on the second leg, taking over for leadoff swimmer Caeleb Dressel. It may be Phelps’s best event, but he mistimed his finish in London and that allowed le Clos to beat him at the line.
