Image: REUTERS
The first eagerly awaited swimming duel between US star Katie Ledecky and Australian Ariarne Titmus went to the challenger. Titmus, 20, inflicted the five-time Olympic champion in Tokyo over 400 meters crawl her first defeat in an Olympic individual race by missing Ledecky's world record in the Rio Games in 3: 56.69 minutes by just 0.23 seconds.
Ledecky had led for a long time, in the last quarter of the race she was distanced by 0.67 seconds. And while Titmus, who is called “Terminator” in Australia because of her powerful race, first had to realize what had just happened, the screams of her trainer Dean Boxall in the hall could not be overheard for a long time. He let his emotions run free and celebrated the triumph just like the WWE wrestler “Ultimate Warrior” (James Hellwig; † 2014). His show became a YouTube hit, and both are to be continued.
First gold for Dressel
For Ledecky, 24, it was a bit of a damper on the way to becoming the most successful swimming Olympian of all time. Her compatriot Jenny Thompson occupies this position with eight titles. Ledecky won gold four times in 2012 and 2016. She can still surpass Thompson, but it would have to work for the crawl specialist with titles over 200, 800, 4 x 200 m and at the Olympic premiere of 1500 m.
It got off to a successful start for Caleb Dressel, America's new “Aquaman”. He celebrated his first title in 3: 08.97 minutes with the 4 x 100 m crawl relay as the starting swimmer. Seven medals are possible for the 25-year-old in the Aquatics Center. Only Michael Phelps, Mark Spitz and Matt Biondi could do that before. (red)
