Need for speed: Ledecky wins 400 but slower than expected
OMAHA, Neb., June 15, (AP): Katie Ledecky touched the wall far ahead of everyone else at the U.S. swimming trials.
No surprise there.
But she was taken aback by the time. It wasn’t as fast as expected, raising the stakes for an expected showdown in Tokyo with the Aussie Terminator.
Ledecky earned a trip to her third Olympics with a never-in-doubt victory in the women’s 400-meter freestyle.
She was a good five body lengths ahead of runner-up Paige Madden, touching the wall in 4 minutes, 1.27 seconds.
But the winning time was far off Ledecky’s world record of 3:56.46, which she set almost five years ago at the Rio Olympics.
Another time on everyone’s mind: Ariarne Titmus won the 400 free at the Australian trials on Sunday with the second-fastest performance in history - 3:56.90.
Ledecky wasn’t even close to Titmus’ performance.
“Very much a blur,” Ledecky said. “I thought I could go a little faster than that, so I’m a little surprised. But I’ll take it for now.”
Titmus, a 20-year-old known as “The Terminator,” has made it clear that she’s not intimidated by Ledecky’s longtime dominance in the distance events.
Titmus told reporters Down Under that the 24-year-old from the nation’s capital is “not going to have it all her own way. I can’t control what she does, (but) if I do the best I can and put myself in the position to win a gold medal, it’s going to be a tough race.”
SWIMMING
While Ledecky is a familiar face on the American team - she’s won five gold medals and one silver at the last two Summer Games - the second night of the trials also signaled a changing of the guard.
Two Olympic rookies locked up their spots for Tokyo: teenager Torri Huske captured the women’s 100 butterfly, while Michael Andrew held on to win the men’s 100 breaststroke.
Huske was under world-record pace at the turn but faded just a bit on the return leg. Still, she touched first in 55.66 seconds, breaking the national mark of 55.78 that she set the previous night in the semifinals.
The 18-year-old from Arlington, Virginia, came up short of the world record (55.48) set five years ago by Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom at the Rio Games.
“I don’t even know what to do,” Huske said. “I’ve been thinking about this a lot. I feel like it hasn’t really sunk in. It’s really crazy.”
An even younger swimmer, 16-year-old Claire Curzan of Cary, North Carolina, took the expected second spot on the Olympic team at 56.43.