Australia rivalry highlights first night in Olympic pool

Katie Ledecky will have a shot at five medals at the Rio Olympics.

Katie Ledecky is racing herself in the 400-meter freestyle.

A 19-year-old Phelps was a bona fide star by the time his second Olympics rolled around, having set world records in four events. Ledecky said she probably hadn’t been in a relay since her high school meets.

“That’s something I’ve had the privilege to be a part of since 2004, and I’m hoping to have the opportunity again”, Phelps said of swimming the relay.

“Maybe it’ll matter to her 20 years from now…”

Michael Phelps, who knows something about golden hauls, gets started with his fifth and final Olympics on Sunday. American Leah Smith posted the third-fastest time in the preliminaries.

As much as the USA star wanted to save American hopes, it was asking too much in an event the women haven’t won in 20 years. At one practice, Gemmell sent Ledecky out with one of the best male distance swimmers at his Nation’s Capital Swim Club to swim 5,000 meters as fast as they could.

She’s turned heads within her sport and with US broadcaster NBC manipulating the timing of all the big medal events deep into prime time, the world at large is about to know so much more about the soft-spoken, squeaky voiced teen.

Despite setting a US mark, the Americans weren’t close to Australia’s world-record time of 3 minutes 30.65 seconds in the 400-meter freestyle relay.

Forgive swimming fans if they grew exhausted of the soundtrack to the swim meet at the 2012 Olympics in London, where the Americans piled up so many medals that the Star-Spangled Banner became a nightly refrain.

Vollmer swam the semifinals of the 100 butterfly earlier in the evening and qualified for the finals.

Sun Yang of China goes for gold in the men’s 400 free on Saturday. Along with Cate and sister Bronte Campbell, the Aussies also have Emma McKeon, who owns the fourth-fastest time in the world this year in the 100 free and Brittany Elmslie (10th fastest) to round out the relay.

With victories in the 200, 400 and 800 – she will be a slight or co-favorite in the first and an overwhelming favorite in the latter two – she would match Debbie Meyers in 1968 as the only women to sweep all three in a single Olympics.

The United States and Australia figure to pile up the most medals at the pool. The Americans weren’t as dominant in Kazan, winning 23 medals and eight golds. We were there. I’m really happy with it.

It’s the kind of hitch a lot of traditional coaches more focused on teaching rhythm and consistency might have encouraged Ledecky to get rid of. Columns in the arena’s four corners will obstruct the views of some fans. News stories displayed here appear in our category for Sports and are licensed via a specific agreement between LongIsland.com and The Associated Press, the world’s oldest and largest news organization. For the protection of AP and its licensors, content may not be copied, altered or redistributed in any form. Doing so may result in civil and/or criminal penalties.