Olympics: US women win silver in 400-meter freestyle relay

“I think my last stroke was a little lackadaisical”. American Olivia Smoliga qualified fifth, just behind Hungary’s Iron Lady, Katinka Hosszu, who won her first Olympic gold medal on Saturday in record-breaking fashion in the 400 IM.

She was just off her world-record time of 3:58.37, but shattered the old Olympic record of 4:01.45 by France’s Camille Muffat four years ago.

Swindon swimmer Carlin, who now lives in Bradford on Avon, gave herself a major boost in her quest for a medal by qualifying second fastest behind overwhelming gold medal favourite Katie Ledecky of the United States. If she qualifies Sunday night, she will swim in the Gold medal final Monday night.

But Carlin will be in contention for a podium position after setting the second fastest time behind Ledecky in the heats.

Carlin in her first Olympic appearance, showed now signs of nerves starting cautiously as Ledecky raced away from the pack in the first 100m and never looked back. Ledecky, 19, is favored in the 400 meters freestyle, while Vollmer is defending Olympic champion in the 100 butterfly. I am thrilled and excited to be admitted to Stanford, and I very much look forward to my enrollment there as a student in the Fall of 2016 and swimming in NCAA competition as a member of Coach Meehan’s Stanford team.

Ledecky said she cried when told she would anchor the relay earlier Saturday.

Kylliainen, 23, is still at school in the US but she represents Finland so has something of an outsider’s perspective. I’m coming off the 100 [4x100m freestyle relay] yesterday, and this is not 100. DiRado finished almost five seconds slower than Hosszu, but swam her personal best time by more than half a second.

“It’s just insane that I’ve been able to swim two seconds faster than anyone else ever did”, she told reporters.

DiRado, who already has said this will be her only Olympics, displayed her California laidback vibe afterward. “I had no doubt she would dig deep”.

At the 2015 World Championships, she broke the 800m world record (which she would later break) and the 1500m world record twice-once in the preliminaries, and again in the final. “I’m looking forward to either watching or being in that race”.