Day 1: I watched the US beach volleyball team get spanked by a rookie team fielded by Fidel Castro Jr and then this. I don't watch this crap except during the Olympics because it's boring....unless the US is kicking ass on the global stage under those multi colored rings.
If Simone Biles chokes again, I'm out! I'm dead serious. I'm furious.
PS . Look at this. I'm even starting to cry. Bronze? Ricky Booby wouldn't be satisfied with this shit.
Katie Ledecky Is Finally Vanquished by the Rivals She Helped Create
The U.S. swimming legend was forced to settle for bronze as Ariarne Titmus took gold in a star-studded 400 meter freestyle showdown
By Laine Higgins, WSJ
Updated July 27, 2024 4:31 pm ET
NANTERRE, France—Katie Ledecky has been so dominant in the pool that even the best swimmers on Earth are happy simply to be in sight of her feet when she finishes a race.
So it felt deeply unfamiliar to watch two swimmers cruise by her on Saturday night in the final of the 400-meter freestyle, where Ledecky finished more than three seconds behind the leaders and was forced to settle for bronze.
And here’s the weirdest part: Of all the factors that have changed the color of the medals around her neck, the biggest might be Ledecky herself.
Because she was so good for so long, Ledecky, 27, left the rest of the world with two choices: get faster—or get used to trailing in her wake.
“She’s pushed the sport to different limits that people probably never thought could happen,” said U.S. national team director Lindsay Mintenko. “She’s raised the bar for everybody, plain and simple.”
For the first time since she emerged as a once-in-a-generation phenomenon a decade ago, Ledecky is now the one who has to get faster. She was elbowed off the top of the podium by Australian Ariarne Titmus, the world record holder and now a two-time Olympic champion in the 400. Hot on her heels is Summer McIntosh, the Canadian prodigy who took silver on Saturday night.
In the preliminary round on Saturday, it looked as though Ledecky was back to her world-beating ways when she posted the top qualifying time in the field.
Even when Titmus built a body-length lead over her in the final, it seemed like it was only a matter of time until Ledecky reeled her in.
But this time, there was no coming back. Titmus kept on accelerating, pulling along McIntosh in the lane beside her, while Ledecky sank farther back. The American’s final time, 4:00.86, was the slowest she’d ever swam an Olympic final.
“We probably all would say that we would have liked to have been a little faster,” Ledecky said. “Been faster a few times this season, but you can’t complain with a medal.”
When the trio squared off last summer’s world championships, the Aussies dubbed it the “Race of the Century.” Titmus touched the wall nearly three seconds ahead of Ledecky. The Parisian rematch played out much the same, albeit with all three women swimming slower than their last head-to-head-to-head race in 2023.
“It’s fun racing the best in the world. It gets the best out of me, hopefully gets the best out of them,” Titmus said after the race. “I really hope that all the hype lived up to this expectation.”
Ledecky’s success in distance races had come from her ability to treat them like sprints. Most swimmers need to hold back in the early laps to stave off unbearable pain at the end. Not Ledecky, who got better the longer the race dragged on.
Those aggressive tactics helped her set a catalog of world records. But they also created a blueprint for the next generation to follow. Girls who were in elementary school when Ledecky won her first Olympic gold in 2012 are now Olympians themselves. And on Saturday, two of those starry-eyed kids were looking down on her from the top steps of the podium.
“Go through sports and there are examples time and time again of these almost mythical barriers that we artificially set,” said Brent Arckey, McIntosh’s coach. “Eventually somebody breaks those barriers—and you’re just going to have the floodgates open.”
For the better part of the last 12 years, Ledecky has been the gold standard. On Saturday night, she finally passed the torch to the successor she helped create.
Write to Laine Higgins at laine.higgins@wsj.com
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