IIn Rio de Janeiro, Katie Ledecky finished faster after eight lanes across the 50-meter pool. Her world record over 400 meters freestyle since then, 3:56.46 minutes, swam en route to one of four gold medals in Brazil, still stands today. On Monday in Tokyo, Kathleen Genevieve Ledecky of Washington, D.C. was faster than ever, except for that time in Rio: 3:57.36.
“Fifty-three, that’s a great time,” said Ariarn Titmus. you should know. I swam behind my hands. I swam next to my lydy. Then I swam in front of my hands. Ariarn Titmus swam faster than Katie Ledecky. Ariarn Titmus, born almost 21 years ago in Launceston, Tasmania, is the first woman to win an individual race at the Olympics against Katie Ledecky.
In Australia, a country igniting much of its not-so-small sporting pride in its swimmers’ victories over the Americans, public life came to a standstill for nearly four minutes on Monday, Ariarn Titmus was then told. At their old school, St Peters Lutheran College in Indorobili, Queensland, students in the auditorium would watch the broadcast. “I am very humbled, to be a part of this story,” the winner said at her post-race press conference. Ariarn Titmus has risen to the ranks of the great Australian swimmers.
Katie Ledecky swam to 15 world titles between 2013 and 2019. But in Gwangju, at the world championships two years ago, Katie Ledecky lost the 400 metres. against Ariarne Titmus, a young Australian who moved to Queensland with her parents, for sporting opportunities. And so Katie Ledecky was accompanied by a few questions as she walked toward the starting block of Runway 4 in Tokyo on Monday morning. Now 24, at the US Trials in Omaha, Nebraska in June, she won what can be won – but the times have raised a question that haunts her now: Is Katie Ledecky still the indomitable? Or is this an old lydy?
Next to her is the fifth aisle, Titmus, 20 years old. and Pingjie Li, China, 19. Isabel Goss, Germany, 19. Erika Fairweather, New Zealand, 17. Mohan Tang, China, 17, and Summer Macintosh, Canada, 14. Stratford when she broke her first Olympic gold medal.
Ariarn Titmus (centre) presents her gold medal in Tokyo.
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Photograph: Marko Djurica/Reuters
the beginning. McIntosh is the fastest to make the first turn. Then Lydecky took over. She is old. She walks away. Half a second ahead after 150 meters. More than six tenths of a second after 200. Leading the Ledecky, Sovereign. Titmus’ head moves at the level of Ledecky’s foot. But lead no longer grows. Titmus would later say, “I knew I was late.” “I’m close to the fifth lane.” She is wrong. In the fifth turn, the progression is as large as in the fourth: 66 hundredths of a second. And then, Ariarn Titmus approaches. quickly. Very fast. Between 250 and 300 meters you steal my hands for half a second.
Lydecky will later say that she looked at 300 metres. And we saw: “Oh, there he is.” “At 350 meters we turned around in chains,” Titmus recalls. This is not true either. She is driving. 22 milliseconds. Fifty yards to go. Titmus leads, but Ledecky is undefeated, still. She does not intend for Titmus to change that. Ledecky does not look at Titmus, and Titmus does not look at Ledecky. Breathing away from each other, titmouse to the left, and Lidiki to the right, like a couple arguing before the lights went out at night. Now it’s getting dark, too for the swimmers.
Now it’s a race that people will be talking about in a few years. woman against woman. up the wall. hits titams. blows to my hands. Titmus won. 3: 56.69 minutes. TV viewers know. Ariarn Titmus does not know. She had to swim a world record to beat Ledecky, her coach Dean Boxall told her for years. This was not true. Titmus looks left, turns his head, sees the scoreboard. Watch the number one next to her name. The brain turns off. “I saw it, not the time, and I thought: Whatever.” Did not matter. Olympic champion. Lydecie defeated.
In the stands, a Boxall coach drives endorphins. Like a dervish, like a rock star, he sweeps up the rank, his long blond hair swirls, and for a few moments he looks as if he wants to mate on a glass wall. The video spreads around the world instantly. Lee crosses the finish line in third place. Four and a half seconds after it touches. Isabel Goss took sixth place. And Katie Ledecky? defeated.
However satisfied. very satisfied. Only once did she swim 400m faster than she did in this race. “I swam in a great race,” she says afterwards. “I haven’t been this fast in five years. That’s a good sign for the next races.” 200, 800, 1500m: Ledecky plans three more solo runs. On Monday evening, eight hours after the final, she was back in the pool twice. Ariarn Titmus wants to start the 200 and 800 meter freestyle races. There should be a continuation of the 200m freestyle final on Wednesday.
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