“Pure happiness” radiated from Katie Ledecky as the 19-year-old US freestyle phenomenon gazed at the scoreboard and contemplated her latest feat: Olympic 400m freestyle gold in world record time.
Ledecky — targeting a rare 200m, 400m and 800m Olympic freestyle treble — surged home to touch the wall in 3 minutes, 56.46 seconds, smashing her own world record of 3 minutes, 58.37 seconds set in Gold Coast, Australia, in 2014.
Upon seeing her time, she grinned broadly having achieved a goal she had set for herself back in 2013 of lowering the record in the event to “3:56 or better.”
Photo: AP
“To see 3:56 feels really good,” said Ledecky, who now owns the six fastest times in the event and is one of only two women even to break four minutes.
Italy’s Federica Pellegrini did it twice, in the era of the now-banned supersuits.
Ledecky, who has gone from strength to strength since her surprise win in the 800m freestyle as a 15-year-old in London, has broken 12 world records since then.
On Sunday, she covered the last 50m in a blazing 28.92 seconds, leaving Jazz Carlin of the UK to collect silver in 4 minutes, 1.23 seconds — 4.77 seconds adrift. The US’ Leah Smith took bronze in 4 minutes, 1.92 seconds.
“I just let it all out,” said Ledecky, who came within a whisker of the world mark in the afternoon heats, clocking 3 minutes, 58.71 seconds — the second-fastest ever until her gold medal swim.
“It felt pretty identical to this morning, with a little more pop on the back half,” Ledecky said. “It just felt great.”
Smith, who was thrilled to finish less than two seconds behind Ledecky in the 400m freestyle at the US trials, said she knew Ledecky was primed for something big.
“I’ve been training with her for the past month,” Smith said.
“So I knew it was coming. It was only a matter of how fast she was going to go,” she added.
Next up for Ledecky is the 200m freestyle, which started yesterday with heats and semi-finals, and the 800m freestyle on Friday.
She could become the first woman since Debbie Meyer in Mexico City in 1968 to sweep the 200m, 400m and 800m freestyle at the Games, and is to be a contender with the US team in the 4x200m freestyle.
If Ledecky wins her remaining events, she will become just the third US woman, after Amy Van Dyken in 1996 and Missy Franklin in 2012, to win four gold medals in a single Olympics.
Ledecky anchored the 4x100 freestyle team that set a US record and earned silver behind Australia on Saturday.
PHELPS GRABS GOLD, SOBS
AFP, RIO DE JANEIRO
At his fifth, and supposedly last Olympics, Michael Phelps finally let his guard down, sobbing along with his teammates after collecting his 19th gold medal by helping the US win the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay in Rio.
With his infant son, Boomer, watching from the stands, cradled in the arms of his mother, Phelps’ fiancee, Nicole Johnson, the greatest Olympian of all time began to weep after two of his teammates, Ryan Held and Caeleb Dressel, started to bawl.
“They were making us cry,” Phelps said. “The younger guys started crying, I started crying.”
Already far and away the most decorated Olympian of all time, 31-year-old Phelps showed that he had lost none of his speed or killer instincts after coming out of a brief retirement to provide Team USA with its first win in the event since Beijing, narrowly holding off France and Australia.
“It was crazy. I was standing on the block while Caeleb was coming in and I honestly thought my heart was going to explode out of my chest,” said Phelps, who clocked 47.12 seconds on the second leg to give the US swimmers a lead they never relinquished.
“Having the amount of excitement, cheering that was in the stands tonight during that race — I don’t know if I’ve heard anything like it,” Phelps said.
“We wanted that race back so badly,” he added. “My last 400 free relay ever, it feels damn good to get a win.”
London 2012 100m individual winner Nathan Adrian swam the anchor leg in a sizzling 46.97 seconds, the fastest split of the race, to earn his fourth career gold medal, spread over three Olympics.
“Like seriously, I’ve won gold in the 100 freestyle, but I dream about the 4x100 freestyle relay and there it is,” Adrian said. “You’ve got to enjoy this moment, you’ve got to take it in for what it is.”
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB