Ledecky settles for ‘Rio! Rio! Rio!’ instead of record
OMAHA, Neb. — Katie Ledecky has set the bar so high, it’s a bit of a disappointment when she doesn’t set a world record.
The 19-year-old has no complaints.
She’s heading back to the Olympics.
Getting that formality out of the way in her first event of the U.S. swimming trials, Ledecky held off a persistent challenge from Leah Smith to win the 400-meter freestyle on Monday night.
“The last 150, I just kept telling myself, ‘Rio! Rio! Rio!’ ” said Ledecky, who is also a big favorite in two other freestyle races to come. “I just tried to keep myself fired up and didn’t really care what the time was.”
Ledecky, who surprisingly won her first Olympic gold at age 15 four years ago in London, is now recognized as one of the most dominant freestylers in history. She set a blistering pace over the first half of the race, putting her more than 2 seconds ahead of the time from her recordsetting performance at the 2014 Pan Pacific Championships in Australia.
But Ledecky tired a bit over the final 200, another world mark slipping away when she touched in 3 minutes, 58.98 seconds. Smith pushed the 19-yearold winner all the way, also claiming an Olympic berth by finishing at 4:00.65.
Third-fastest all-time
The crowd of more than 14,000 groaned a bit when they saw Ledecky’s time, but it was still the thirdfastest in history.
“That’s fast,” Ledecky said. “That’s 3 seconds faster than anybody else in the world. I think we’re going to really represent the U.S. well in that event.”
Also Monday, Dana Vollmer locked up another trip to the Olympics less than 16 months after giving birth to her first child.
She finished second in the 100 butterfly behind Olympic rookie Kelsi Worrell, one of several young swimmers already signaling a changing of the guard in the first two days of the meet.
Smith will be heading to her first Olympics. Ditto for the top two in the 100 breaststroke, won by Kevin Cordes followed by Cody Miller.
That means seven Olympic first-timers have already made the powerful American team. Chase Kalisz, Jay Litherland and Maya DiRado qualified on the first night of the trials.
A veteran presence
In the 100 fly, defending Olympic champion Vollmer led at the turn, but the lateblooming Worrell rallied on the return lap to post the second-fastest time in the world this year at 56.48.
Vollmer touched next in 57.21, giving her the second Olympic spot at age 28.
One night after stunningly missing out on an Olympic berth in the 400 individual medley, an ailing Ryan Lochte swam two more grueling races to qualify for the final of the 200 freestyle.
Shaking off the pain of a groin injury, Lochte got through the morning preliminaries and posted the fifth-fastest time in the evening semifinals.
But Lochte has his work cut out for him to earn an Olympic berth in Tuesday’s final, and he’s admittedly having trouble with his kicks and turns. He finished in 1:47.58 seconds, getting passed by Conor Dwyer and Clark Smith on the final lap of their semifinal heat.
“All I wanted to do was get a lane for tomorrow and that’s what I did,” Lochte said. “Tomorrow is definitely going to be rough, and it’s going to be fast.”