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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In the other big race Tuesday night, America’s latest swim darling Ledecky won the gold medal in the 200-meter freestyle, considered her toughest event.
To get out there, it felt so good to just kind of get in the water and race again.
Before the women’s longest distance, the men began their shortest with Ukraine’s Andrii Govorov fastest in the 50m freestyle heats.
Katie Ledecky is at her best in swimming’s most gruelling races, but she has never come closer to throwing up than after her win in the 200 metre freestyle at the Rio Olympics.
For Ledecky, this is already her third event of the games.
In one of the marquee events, Biles and her four USA teammates lived up to the sky-high expectations and dominated the women’s team competition. Phelps made a tactical error, though, in the 100 fly heats.
He was no doubt remembering the ups and downs of the past four years: A second drunken-driving arrest; six weeks of therapy; giving up alcohol; getting engaged to Johnson; reconnecting with his estranged father; and becoming a father himself for the first time.
“But I screwed up, ‘” he said. He has already added his 20th and 21st career Olympic golds to his collection at the Games. “But I’d like to have those extra seven, eight minutes in between”.
“I took it pretty fast and forced everyone”, Ledecky said.
“I couldn’t be happier”. Singapore’s Joseph Schooling topped the lists with 51.41 seconds to Phelps’ 51.60. USA coaches chose former Stanford star DiRado for the third leg of the final.
American Catholic gymnast Simone Biles has won her first Olympic gold medal.
Franklin, who led the United States to victory in the relay at the London Games, also earned a gold medal as a participant. “It’s all just about doing my best every time“.
“My mom, Nellie, got me a rosary at church”, she explained. Two years ago, Russian Federation annexed his home of Crimea and he rejected changing nationality.
“What happened four years ago really stuck with me”, Phelps said Tuesday night. “When I was on the block, I thought my heart was going to explode out of my chest”.
When she entered the pool, the Americans trailed Australia by 0.89 seconds. Adrian would have to settle for bronze.
So after Phelps won his second gold medal of these Games and vanquished le Clos, who finished fourth, he seemed to defy anyone to come and beat him.
Hilary Caldwell of Canada had the second quickest time of 2:07.40.
Defending champion Missy Franklin advanced to the semifinals with the 11th-fastest time of 2:09.36.
Ledecky was asked what she was thinking as she churned to the wall for one last time in the race. At least I was able to make Rio, which was one of my goals. And she’s worked on going down from there, to the 200 and even the 100 (she anchored the women’s 4×100 silver medal-winning relay on Saturday).
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Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe, a two-time Olympic champion in the 200 back, qualified ninth.
