Rio 2016 Olympics: Katinka Hosszu wins 100m backstroke to claim second gold

Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu powered to victory in the women’s 100m backstroke here Monday, her second gold medal of the Olympics.

Britain’s Siobhan-Marie O’Connor was second, three tenths of a second behind, while bronze went to American Maya Dirado.

She also broke the world record in the 400 medley in Rio and was a surprise victor of the 100m backstroke, joining an elite group of female swimmers to have won three individual gold medals at a single Olympics. The winning time in the 200m was 2 minutes, 6.58 seconds.

Hosszu’s withdrawal meant she can not now equal Australian swimmer Shane Gould – who won her three golds, a silver and a bronze in Munich in 1972.

The 23-year-old Northern California native and Stanford graduate plans to retire after she’s done competing in Rio and begin work as a business analyst for a management consulting firm in Atlanta. She maintained her air of invincibility, still unbeaten in an Olympic or world championship final, but only after repelling the fastest last lap from silver medallist Sjostrom in a duel that lived up to its billing as one of the most eagerly-awaited contests at Rio 2016.

The 2012 champion in the event, Matt Grevers, was unable to defend his title after failing to qualify at the US trials.

Kylie Masse of Canada and Fu Yuanhui of China tied for the bronze medal with a time of 58.76.

Before then, she still has one event to go: the 200-meter backstroke beginning on Thursday.

She faded in the closing stages on Monday to finish seventh. The last woman to win three individual swimming golds at an Olympics was Inge De Bruijn of the Netherlands at the 2000 Sydney Games.

It was Sun’s second medal of the Games after silver in the 400 free on Saturday.

Conor Dwyer of the USA won bronze.