LONDON -- Michael Phelps is turning his final Olympics into quite a victory lap, and don't fret about American swimming after he's gone.
Led by a pair of high schoolers, the post-Phelps era will be in very good hands.
In what amounted to a symbolic changing of the guard Friday, Phelps claimed the 17th gold medal of a career that has just 24 hours to go -- on the same day one teenager, Missy Franklin, broke a world record in the backstroke and another, Katie Ledecky, took down a hallowed American mark that was set nearly eight years before her birth.
"This has sort of turned into the youth Olympics," Franklin said. "There's so many members of the team coming up this year that are going to carry on this incredible generation."
Just minutes before Phelps took center stage in the 100-meter butterfly at the Aquatics Centre, Franklin set a world record in the 200 backstroke, the 17-year-old's third gold in London. Another American, Elizabeth Beisel, 19, won bronze in that race.
"I can't believe what just happened," said Franklin, who had dedicated her Olympics to victims of the theater shooting near her Colorado home.
Right after Phelps was done, Ledecky -- the youngest member of the U.S. team at 15 -- nearly broke the world record to win gold in the 800 freestyle, denying Britain's Rebecca Adlington a repeat before her home fans. Adlington settled for bronze in a race Ledecky dominated from start to finish, falling off record pace only in the last 15 meters.
Ledecky crushed Janet Evans' American mark of 8:16.22, set in Tokyo on Aug. 20, 1989.
"I figured I was going pretty fast," Ledecky said.
zon-mlm
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar