Katie Ledecky was the talk of day two, and brought home the Cardinal’s first gold medal of the Olympics in the 400m freestyle. In the preliminary heat, Ledecky was clearly taking it easy. But taking it easy for Ledecky meant that she would still set an Olympic record, and come within 0.34 of the world record (of course, the world record was also set by Ledecky).
In the finals, however, Ledecky went all out and smashed her own world record by about two seconds to win the gold medal, finishing nearly five seconds ahead of second-place Jazmin Carlin.