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USA women swim for gold in freestyle relay
But how great? What makes her great? Excellent writers and analysts have inventively and creatively turned to charts, to analysis of her stroke rate, to investigations of Bethesda, where she grew up.
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She blew everyone else away. But they simply can’t think of another way to say it.
“It’s the closest I’ve come to throwing up at the end of a race”, said the woman who deferred enrollment from Stanford to prepare for Rio.
U.S. Olympic swimmers Katie Ledecky and Michael Phelps have a lot in common. Ledecky had barely 50K. It left her face contorted from exhaustion, the result of an effort that took every ounce of her physical and mental strength. They had no idea who she was. She swims. Her dominance does not impress her. She drove herself to the wall.
Ledecky took the most challenging step toward a feat that has only been done one other time, holding off Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom to win the 200m freestyle on Tuesday to give the U.S. star her second gold of the Olympics. “She has that goal in her mind, and nothing gets in her way”.
Ledecky, 19, added to her gold in the 400 freestyle on Sunday and silver in the 4×100 freestyle relay the day before. The longer the distance, the more dominant Ledecky becomes. She is unbeatable at that distance.
Having attended Catholic schools all the way from preschool through high school, Ledecky was asked how the things she learned in Catholic schools are translating into her life as an worldwide swimming superstar. Serena and her sister Venus Williams also lost their first doubles match, their first time losing the Olympics after three victories.
After four days of competition in Rio, Team USA now has 26 medals, including 9 gold.
Ledecky’s fellow US swimmers are also in awe of her abilities.
That was such a tough race.
Franklin (1:57.03) and Melanie Margalis (1:57.04) were essentially even, though Franklin’s experience and resume as a five-time medalist at the 2012 London Games would seemingly give her an edge for the fourth position. “Hopefully I can keep it rolling one more time”. Ledecky actually got out a little bit slower than she would have liked, but she had a breathtaking second and third 50 meters, so she led Sjostrom by four-tenths of a second coming off the wall for the final turn.
During the 2015 World Championships last August, in which Phelps was not allowed to swim because of a DUI suspension, le Clos said of his American rival: “I’m just very happy that he’s back to his good form, so he can’t come out and say, “Oh, I haven’t been training” or all that rubbish that he’s been talking”.
But, see, swimming full blast for 200 meters takes a different sort of energy and rhythm. “Everything was hurting”, The New York Times quoted Ledecky as saying after the race. If not for the chronicling of her achievements through articles, videos and television, Ledecky’s exploits would be deemed incomprehensible. The Brazilian crowd (with plenty of Americans) was absolutely bonkers.
Franklin seems to have accepted her fate.
Then, Ledecky began to fight back.
“It’s so easy to get up and swim fast when you’re swimming for three other people”. It is arguably the most competitive race in the world. “But I won’t. I’m going to let what I do in the pool do my talking”. With his head almost at the wall, he took one more stroke to make sure he got there first, his arms slamming against the timing pad.
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The.35 of a second that made the difference between Ledecky and Sjostrom was carved from those reps. Gold medal No. 3. Well, the whole arena was ecstatic. I just had to dig deep and do my own thing.