Then, Ledecky played the waiting game, hanging on the rope for a while to let the rest of the field finish.
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Her jaw dropped as she looked up to the scoreboard and saw a tie for gold and an Olympic-record time of 52.70 seconds.
Ledecky swam the race in 8:04.79. She certainly has nothing to complain about after winning two golds, a silver and a bronze in Rio.
“I had just flipped for my last 50”, Smith said, “and I kind of was like, ‘Well, this probably isn’t a good race for me, just doing the math'”.
The teenager from suburban Washington has one more race to go, and it might be the biggest lock of all.
She also followed fellow swimmers Amy Van Dyken and Missy Franklin as the only American women to win as many as four golds in a single Olympics.
On the fifth night of swimming at the Olympic Aquatic Center, 18-year-old Kyle Chalmers dethroned defending champion Nathan Adrian in the final of the 100 freestyle, the first Australian to be crowned king of speed in 48 years.
The 26-year-old, a multiple medallist at world, European and Commonwealth level, is chasing her first Olympic medal.
Already, she has stormed her way to three gold medals and one silver and could still win more, having qualified for Friday’s 800-meter freestyle final.
Jazz Carlin’s new-found confidence propelled her to a second Olympic medal in Rio. But he did cruise through the semifinals of the 200 individual medley with the fastest time, besting longtime rival and countryman Ryan Lochte.
Katie Ledecky is a fierce competitor in the pool, but she couldn’t hold back her emotions after she nabbed the gold on Friday night. Victor of three golds and five medals overall in London four years ago, she battled depression and didn’t qualify for an individual event in Rio. Ledecky will be going in the women’s 800-meter freestyle, while Franklin is swimming in the 200-meter backstroke.
Leah Smith, Ledecky’s US 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.
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Carlin, who also finished second behind Ledecky in the 400m earlier this week, struggled with illness in 2011 and missed out on qualifying for the London Games. She owns the top 13 times in history at that distance. In addition, she received a silver medal for another race, which will increase her net worth by $15,000. Meyer took the 200, 400 and 800 at Mexico City in 1968. Japan’s Natsumi Hoshi claimed the bronze, beating out Cammile Adams of the U.S.
