Katie Ledecky Wins Gold For U.S. In 800-Meter Freestyle
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SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
USA Olympics Katie Ledecky entered her Tokyo Olympics these days with pure gold. She received the 800-meter freestyle for the 1/3 Olympics in a row and made history. Still, as NPR's Tom Goldman reviews from Tokyo, there may be a feel the 24-year-old did not pretty stay up to unfair expectations that have been set for her.
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TOM GOLDMAN, BYLINE: Katie Ledecky led to begin to end in the 800, and although her prevailing time used to be nowhere close to her world file at the 2016 Games, it was once nonetheless a pleasurable sixteen laps of revenge. At least, it's how the backyard world characterised her victory over silver medalist Ariarne Titmus of Australia. Titmus beat Ledecky in the 200- and 400-freestyle races in Tokyo, fueling swimming's new contention that Ledecky says is very friendly.
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KATIE LEDECKY: You know, there is nothing between us. We're simply going to hold shifting forward. And if we show up to get side-by-side, we're going to put up in reality notable races and be fierce rivals when we dive into the water.
GOLDMAN: Titmus, who's solely 20, concurred. There's mutual respect, no animus, though these two wins towards Ledecky had been sweet.
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ARIARNE TITMUS: I mean, to have her on the field, the fantastic swimmer she is - that in all likelihood makes it a little bit extra satisfying.
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GOLDMAN: Ledecky ends her Tokyo run a lot extra satisfied. With the 800-freestyle win, she has extra man or woman Olympic medals than any girl swimmer in history, six of them, stretching lower back to the 2012 London Games.
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LEDECKY: You know, I'm in reality happy. I wager that is simply the exceptional way to put it. It's, you know, difficult simply to make an Olympics. It's tough to win a medal. So to win even one gold at the previous three Olympics has been amazing.
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GOLDMAN: But she's had to hostilities a understanding that her Tokyo performances have been much less than amazing. Thanks to - or possibly cursed through - her dominance in 2016. She was once one of these Olympians getting into Tokyo with weighty expectations. So used to be Caeleb Dressel, any other U.S. swimming star. He says the prognosticators appear to forget about what all athletes went thru to get right here after a year's delay.
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CAELEB DRESSEL: We could not teach for a large chunk. And then we have greater months than ever to construct a base up, difficult to get the whole lot lined up as it should be 'cause no person knew what to do. No one had the e book that says, oh, this is what you do when there may be a international pandemic to get prepared for the Olympics.
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GOLDMAN: Which makes Dressel's three golds, which includes his world document in the 100-meter butterfly Saturday, amazing, to use Ledecky's word. Dressel's now not completed racing in Tokyo. Ledecky is however says she'll be again for the subsequent Olympics in 2024 to struggle her rival and the ever-present expectations. Tom Goldman, NPR News, Tokyo. Transcript furnished by means of NPR, Copyright NPR
