It was no contest.
The unassuming teenager from suburban Washington gave the United States its first swimming gold medal of the Rio Olympics on Sunday night, crushing her own world record in the women’s 400-meter freestyle.
The result was totally expected. Ledecky has dominated the longer freestyle events since winning gold in the 800 free at the London Olympics as a 15-year-old.
The only drama was whether she’d take the world record even lower.
Her powerful stroke quickly made that a moot point, too.
Ledecky kicked off the first wall with a lead of nearly a body length and steadily pulled away from the overmatched field — as well as the world-record line superimposed on the video screen.
Her arms churning effortlessly through the water, Ledecky touched nearly 5 seconds ahead of her closest pursuer and quickly whipped around to look at the scoreboard.
When Ledecky saw the time — 3 minutes, 56.46 seconds — she let out an uncharacteristic scream and shook her right fist. She crushed the mark of 3:58.37 that she set nearly two years ago on the Gold Coast of Australia, and had been chasing ever since.
Among Sunday’s other highlights:
A Williams Win-Loss: Perhaps it was the 25 mph winds. Or the slower-than-expected hard courts. Or maybe simply that Serena Williams hadn’t played a match in a month.
Whatever the cause, Williams opened defense of her Olympic singles gold medal with a patchy-at-times 6-4, 6-2 victory over Australia’s Daria Gavrilova, gesturing or yelling at herself as she often does when not all goes her way.
“I’m always frustrated on the court if it’s not perfect,” the American said.
Williams had not competed since collecting her Open-era record-tying 22nd Grand Slam title at Wimbledon. She’s now won 19 of her past 20 matches.
Later Sunday, Williams and her older sister Venus lost an Olympic doubles match for the first time. They are three-time gold medalists as a team, and entered this match with a 15-0 record at the Olympics, but were beaten 6-3, 6-4 by the Czech Republic’s Lucie Safarova and Barbora Strycova.
Gabby Gone: Gabby Douglas watched Aly Raisman stick the dismount on the beam, then rose from her seat and gave her American teammate a big hug.
Never mind that Raisman’s success in Olympic qualifying ensured that Douglas couldn’t defend the all-around title she won in London four years ago. Douglas had shaken off a subpar performance in Olympic trials and quieted critics who were convinced she didn’t deserve to make this team.
For her, that was enough.
“I’m not disappointed at all,” she said. “I have no regrets.”
Douglas finished third behind Simone Biles and Raisman. Only two gymnasts per country can compete in Thursday’s final, leaving Douglas out of luck. The divide between Douglas and Raisman was slim. She was edged by less than a half a point.
Record Rout: Diana Taurasi and the U.S. women’s basketball team opened their Olympics with a record rout, smashing Senegal, 121-56, while setting Olympic marks for most points in a game, margin of victory and assists (36). The Americans, also featuring first-time Olympians Brittney Griner, Ella Delle Donne and Breanna Stewart, have won 42 consecutive Olympic games.
Brazilian Bummer: Brazil, which has never won the Olympic gold medal in men’s soccer, failed to win for the second consecutive game, held to a 0-0 draw by Iraq.
The result leaves Brazil tied for second place in Group A. The team needs a victory over Denmark on Wednesday in Salvador to advance and avoid another huge embarrassment at home two years after the 7-1 loss to Germany in the World Cup semifinals.
Neymar, the tournament’s biggest star, played below expectations for the second straight game, and promising young strikers Gabigol and Gabriel Jesus also struggled.
Kosovo First: Majlinda Kelmendi won Kosovo’s first Olympic medal, taking gold in the women’s 52-kilogram judo division. The top-ranked Kelmendi struggled for years to represent her country, which declared independence from Serbia in 2008. At the last Olympics she represented Albania because Kosovo was not recognized by the International Olympic Committee until 2014.
China Gold: China’s bid for a gold in shooting seemed to take a hit when a two-time defending gold medalist failed to qualify. But Zhang Mengxue picked up the slack, earning China’s fourth air pistol gold in the last five Games. China has dominated the air rifle and pistol shooting events at the Olympics, earning nine gold medals since the 2000 Sydney Games.
Bad Break: A day after gruesomely breaking his left leg while vaulting during men’s preliminaries, French gymnast Samir Air Said posted a Facebook video from his hospital bed on Sunday thanking people for their support and pledging to shoot for Tokyo in 2020. Said underwent surgery to repair his fibula and tibia he fractured while trying to land a vault.