TOKYO — In an unsettling succession of races, American swimming was losing heartbreakers and leaking prestige. Down went Katie Ledecky on Monday, then Ryan Murphy and Regan Smith on Tuesday—global stars who weren’t quite up to their world-record best when it mattered most. As the disappointments mounted, someone had to step up and stop the bleeding.
Naturally, that someone was a kid from the swimming backwater of Alaska, a 17-year-old who played the stand-up bass in a bluegrass band and was so far off Olympic radar 18 months ago that she had tickets to attend the 2020 Tokyo Games as a fan.