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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).
Ledecky, who earned a bronze in the 400 freestyle, is looking to lock down the 12th Olympic medal of her career. That would tie her with fellow Americans Dara Torres, Jenny Thompson and Natalie Coughlin for the most ever by a female swimmer.
Ledecky already holds the mark for the most individual golds by a woman with six.
“I’ve been in touch with those three in the past and I know I have a lot of support back home,” Ledecky said. “Just looking forward to continuing on this week.”
The other American, Katie Grimes, finished a disappointing 10th (16:12.11) and failed to advance.
Grimes won a silver medal in the 400 individual medley and still has the marathon race scheduled for next week as she attempts to make the podium in both pool swimming and open water.
Marchand goes for two more golds
Coming off his dominating victory in the men’s 400 individual medley, Léon Marchand of France took on a daunting double.
He was sixth-fastest in the preliminaries of the men’s 200 butterfly at 1:55.26 and returned about two hours later to post the third-best time in the 200 breaststroke at 2:09.55, setting another grueling double in the evening semifinals.
Marchand was spurred on again by a raucous crowd of some 15,000 at La Defense Arena.
“I’m very grateful for the French people just to show up and cheer like that. I think it’s amazing,” he said. “I don’t think anyone has seen that before, so it’s been great for me. I’m using all the energy from the stadium and trying to swim as fast as possible in every race. Tonight will be very exciting for me.”
The finals of both races are Wednesday night, also just two hours apart.
Kristóf Milák of Hungary, the defending gold medalist in the 200 fly, led the way in the heats for that event in 1:53.92. South Korea’s Cho Sung-jae set the pace in the 200 breast at 2:09.45.
The other heats
American Jack Alexy topped men’s 100 freestyle at 47.57, followed by France’s Maxime Grousset (47.70) and Romania’s David Popovici (47.92), who was coming off a gold medal the previous night in the 200 free.
Defending Olympic champion Britain set the pace in the heats of the 4×200 freestyle relay at 7:05.11, with the U.S. claiming the second spot for the evening final in 7:05.57.
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