Katie Ledecky’s First Event Highlights Day 2 of Olympic Swimming originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
One of Team USA’s premier swimmers is making her Tokyo Olympics debut Sunday morning.
Katie Ledecky will race in her first heat of the Games as part of the second day of swimming. The day features heats in six events: the women’s 100m backstroke, men’s 200m freestyle, women’s 100m breaststroke, men’s 100m backstroke, women’s 400m freestyle and men’s 4x100m freestyle relay.
Ledecky, a six-time Olympic medalist, set the world record in the women’s 400m freestyle at the 2016 Rio Olympics with a time of 3:56.46. The event is her first chance to win her seventh Olympic medal and sixth gold.
Though Ledecky stands as one of the most dominant swimmers of all time, a gold medal in the 400m freestyle won’t come easy. Australia’s Ariarne Titmus beat Ledecky by more than a full second in the event at the 2019 World Championships, though Ledecky was ill at the championships and withdrew from other events. Still, Ledecky against Titmus — and Team USA against Australia throughout the whole swimming competition — remains the key matchup in the pool.
Team USA will be featured throughout the other five events in Sunday’s slate as well.
Regan Smith is a favorite to win her first Olympic gold at just 19 years old in the women’s 100m backstroke. The U.S. also has a pair of medal favorites in the women’s 100m breaststroke with Lilly King and Lydia Jacoby.
On the men’s side, men’s 400m freestyle bronze medalist Kieran Smith will aim to reach the podium again in the men’s 200m freestyle. Ryan Murphy is the also favorite going into the men’s 100m backstroke.
Team USA will also run its heat in the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay. Caeleb Dressel, who is a co-captain of the U.S. men’s swimming team at 24 years old following the retirement of Michael Phelps, will not swim in the heat but will participate in the final.