Ledecky sets pace in qualifying after loss to Titmus in 400 duel
Katie Ledecky finished off a busy day at the Tokyo Olympics, qualifying fastest for the first women’s 1,500-meter freestyle at the Games and in the 200 free.
Earlier, she earned a silver medal in the 400 free. In all, the American swam 2,100 meters Monday. “I'll sleep well tonight,” she said. Ledecky’s time of 15 minutes, 35.35 seconds was the eighth-fastest ever in the metric mile. She already owned all of the top-10 times.
But the loss in the 400 to Australian sensation Ariarne Titmus showed Ledecky may be losing her grip on a decade of dominance in women’s swimming.
She piled up world records and gold medals, usually with jawdropping margins of victory that made her appear to be swimming a different race than the competitors fighting for second place.
But Ledecky’s invincibility vanished against Ariarne Titmus in front of a few hundred athletes, coaches, journalists and officials at the cavernous Tokyo Aquatics Centre.
Titmus, nicknamed “The Terminator,” blew past Ledecky in the final stretch of the 400 to win gold in the most anticipated swimming final at these Games.
“It’s the biggest thing you can pull off in your sporting career, so I’m over the moon,” the 20-yearold Titmus said. “I’m trying to contain it as much as I can.”
Ledecky, 24, faced the unfamiliar position of accepting an individual silver medal: “I’ve had some tough ones over the years. It was certainly a tough race and I delivered. I couldn’t do much better than that.”
Entering the race, Ledecky had won all four of her Olympic gold medal races at the London and Rio de Janeiro Games. She owned 12 of the 14 fastest times in history in the 400, including the world record, to go along with world records in the 800 and 1,500 freestyles.
In the early stages of Monday’s final, Ledecky seemed on the way to a vintage performance. Her lead over Titmus grew to almost a full body length — about seven-tenths of a second — at 200 meters.
Ledecky’s unusual blend of topnotch sprinting ability and the gift to handle long distances with ease, along with a textbook stroke and imperviousness to pressure, seemed to be combining, once again, to leave another would-be challenger struggling to catch up.
However, Titmus is unlike anyone Ledecky has encountered since establishing herself as the world’s preeminent female swimmer.
“Honestly, at the 200 meters, I was a bit worried, but I didn’t come to the Olympic Games unprepared,” Titmus said. “I had to trust myself and stay as composed as I could.”
She edged closer to Ledecky, then took the lead with 50 meters remaining and didn’t let up. Titmus finished in 3 minutes 56.69 seconds, the second-fastest time in history behind the record Ledecky set in Rio. The American was 0.67 seconds behind, the second-best mark in her career.
BOUNCING BACK
But Ledecky bounced back in qualifying for the 200 and 1,500, the latter a grueling 30-lap race that has been a men’s event at the Olympics since 1904. The women are swimming it for the first time in Tokyo, although they’ve been competing in it at the world championships since 2001.
Ledecky was followed in the 1,500 by China’s Wang Jianjiahe, Erica Sullivan of the U.S. and Simona Quadarella of Italy for Wednesday's eight-woman final.
Earlier, Ledecky qualified fastest in the 200 free, an event that for the first time featured the past three Olympic champions in the field. She won in 2016, teammate Allison Schmitt won in 2012, and Italy's Federica Pellegrini earned gold in 2008.
“I’m excited that after I get through tomorrow morning, I get an evening off,” Ledecky said. “That’s all I need to give myself a little reset going into the next morning.”