Olympic swimming: Ledecky is fastest in heats of 1500; Marchand advances in 2 more races
Katie Ledecky got started on what she hopes will be her first gold medal of the Paris Olympics, fastest in the heats of the 1,500-meter freestyle
By PAUL NEWBERRY
Published - Jul 30, 2024, 01:35 PM ET
Last Updated - Jul 30, 2024, 01:36 PM EDT
NANTERRE, France (AP) — Katie Ledecky got started on what she hopes will be her first gold medal of the Paris Olympics, topping the field in the preliminaries of the women's 1,500-meter freestyle on Tuesday.
Finishing more than a half-lap ahead of the closest challenger in her heat, Ledecky posted a time of 15 minutes, 47.43 seconds.
She'll have the prime lane in the middle of the pool for the final Wednesday. Her prime challenger appears to be Italy's Simona Quadarella, who was second-fastest in the heats at 15:51.19.
The only other swimmers to break 16 minutes were Anastasiia Kirpichnikova of France (15:52.46) and Isabel Gose of Germany (15:53.27).
