TOKYO – Katie Ledecky won gold, and cried.
Erica Sullivan won silver, and laughed.
In the inaugural Olympic 1,500-meter freestyle, Ledecky won her first gold in Tokyo in her third try, holding off Sullivan, her American teammate, who put on a ferocious surge over the second half of the race.
Sullivan finished and saw Ledecky joyfully smacking the water. "Honestly, I didn't realize I got second until I saw her," Sullivan said. "I thought, oh, she must have done something really good. Then I looked up and said, 'Oh, I did something really good!' "
Sullivan laughed, just as she had when asked if she focused on Ledecky's feet during the race.
"I saw her wake," Sullivan said. "I've never actually seen Katie's feet in a race unless I'm severely out too fast. I saw her little splash, which is more than enough for me."
Ledecky finished in 15 minutes, 41.41 seconds, with Sullivan 4 seconds behind.
Ledecky has spent an uncommon amount of time during this Olympics in the proximity of others' feet. The world's dominant woman swimmer entering Tokyo, she finished second in the 400 freestyle to Australian phenom Ariarne Titmus, then finished fifth in the 200 freestyle as Titmus won again.
That race occurred about an hour before the 1,500. In one morning, Ledecky would be attempting something like Usain Bolt running the 200 meters, taking a break, then running the mile.
Nobody does that at an Olympic medal level in running because fast-twitch muscles and slow-twitch muscles aren't exchangeable, like SIM cards.
"After the 200, I had to turn the page very quickly," Ledecky said. "In the warmdown pool I was just thinking of my family and of my grandparents. They're the four toughest people I know and that's what got me through it."
Ledecky has six career Olympic golds and eight medals overall. She has been so dominant her name became a verb in the swimming world. To Ledecky was to dominate.
But Titmus has beaten her twice, after saying, at the Australian trials, "She's not going to have it all her own way."
That brashness was mirrored by her coach, Dean Boxall, exhorting and preening after Titmus edged Ledecky in the 400 in their first medal encounter at the Games.
When Titmus won the 200, Boxall was restrained, by his standards, thrusting his fist but not his hips in celebration.
Strange as it was to see Ledecky trailing by lengths in any race, perhaps conserving some energy was wise. The 1,500 is by far her better race — she owned the top 12 times in the history of the event entering the Olympic final.
"I definitely wanted to get at least one and I can kind of check that box," she said. "I still always have the big picture in mind. I have a relay tomorrow and the 800 still left. It's so cool to go 1-2 in this event — and there she is."
Sullivan had walked up with the body language of someone who had just gotten a big raise.
"It means the world," Sullivan said. "Katie's just such a bad chick. She's such a cool human being. She's a legend and she'll forever be a legend and the fact that I get to swim in the same generation with her is so cool."
Did Sullivan think she could catch Ledecky?
"Catch?" Sullivan said. "No. Noooooo. Do you know who that girl is?"
Lakeville's Regan Smith does. "She's got the heart of a champion and she has an insane schedule," Smith said. "I'm extremely proud of her no matter what."
