RIO DEJANEIRO–Katie Ledecky did it again.
The Team USA swimmer won her fourth gold medal of Rio 2016 Olympics with world-record time in the women’s 800-meter freestyle.
She also is the first woman since 1968 to sweep the 200, 400 and 800 races in a single Olympics. Debbie Mayer was the last to do so at the Mexico Games.
Ledecky was merely racing the clock as she powered away from the field to touch in 8 minutes, 4.79 seconds, eclipsing the mark 8:06.68 that she set at a grand prix meet in Texas back in January.
Then she waited for the rest of the field finish.
Jazz Karlin finally touched in 8:16.17 to claim the silver, just ahead of Hungary’s Boglarka Kapas grabbing the bronze in 8:16.37.
Some 23 seconds after Ledecky touched the wall, the last of the eight finalists finally got to the end of the grueling race.
Meanwhile, in a stunner, Michael Phelps has been beaten.
Joseph Schooling of Singapore built a big lead on the opening lap and easily held off the hard-charging Phelps to win gold in the 100-meter butterfly.
So, unless Phelps decides to come out of retirement again, his final individual race at the Olympics will go down as a silver. He still has a chance to win his 23rd gold medal in his final race of the Olympics, the 4×100 medley relay.
Phelps was sixth at the turn and Schooling — almost exactly a decade younger than the 31-year-old American — wouldn’t let him pull off one of his patented comebacks on the return lap. The winning time was 50.39 seconds.
Phelps shared the silver with two other longtime rivals, Chad le Clos of South Africa and Laszlo Cseh of Hungary. They all touched in 51.14.
Schooling’s win was Singapore’s first gold of the Rio Olympics.
With additional reporting by CNN.
