RIO DE JANEIRO -- Katie Ledecky delivered another dominating performance at the Rio Games, handily breaking the world record in the 800 freestyle Friday.
Ledecky joined Debbie Meyer as the only women to sweep the three longer freestyle events at the same Olympics. Meyer took the 200, 400 and 800 at the 1968 Mexico Games, and Ledecky matched that performance with a couple of world records as well.
Ledecky was merely racing the clock as she powered away from the field to touch in 8 minutes, 4.79 seconds, eclipsing the mark of 8:06.68 that she set at a grand prix meet in Texas back in January.
Then she waited for the rest of the field to finish.
Jazz Karlin finally touched in 8:16.17 to claim the silver, just ahead of Hungary's Boglarka Kapas, who grabbed the bronze in 8:16.37.
Some 23 seconds after Ledecky touched the wall, the last of the eight finalists finally ended the grueling race.
Ledecky also became the third American woman to win four gold medals in a single Olympics, following fellow swimmers Amy Van Dyken and Missy Franklin.
Also Friday, Maya DiRado denied Katinka Hosszu's bid to become a four-time gold medalist at the Rio Olympics.
Hosszu got off to a blistering start and led almost the entire race. But DiRado rallied furiously on the final lap and beat Hosszu at the touch to win in 2 minutes, 5.99 seconds.
DiRado couldn't believe what she had done in her one and only Olympics. She put her hands on her cap in disbelief when she saw her name on top of the scoreboard.
Hosszu settled for silver in 2:06.05, and Canada's Hilary Caldwell took the bronze in 2:07.54.
No comments:
Post a Comment