Olympics swimming results: Madeleine Dirado, Katie Ledecky shine – August 12th

Here are the results in Olympic swimming for August 12.

The Women’s 200m backstroke started the action on Friday, with powerhouse Katinka Hosszu expected to dominate the event. However, it would be American Madeline Dirado who would take home the gold, beating the Hungarian swimmer by .06 seconds. Dirado, who is swimming in her first Olympics, has now won four medals this Olympics. Canada’s Hilary Caldwell took home the silver, trailing Hosszu by a second and a half.

The biggest ticket of the night on the men’s side was the Men’s 100m butterfly, as Michael Phelps went for his fifth gold of the 2016 Rio Olympics. Phelps put on a nice showing, pushing strong towards the end, but he ended up in a three-way tie for the silver medal. Joining him with the silver medal was rival Chad le Clos, the South African swimmer who Phelps destroyed in the 200m butterfly earlier this week.

The gold medalist in the event was Joseph Schooling, a swimmer from Singapore. Schooling set the Olympic record on this night, posting a time of 50.39. It was the first time he had swum in this event in Olympic competition.

Katie Ledecky, who has been the most dominant swimmer at these Olympics, took center stage after the men finished the 100m butterfly. Ledecky did not disappoint, crushing the competition in the Women’s 800m freestyle. She had already set the Olympic record during her qualifying heat, so the World Record came as no surprise, as she finished with a time of 8:04.79.

For Ledecky, she came into the night enjoying a fantastic second Olympic Games, having already won three gold medals, and she set a world record in the 400m freestyle. Ledecky is the new face of American swimming, and on Friday, she looked like Secretariat at the Belmont. She beat the rest of the competition by a little less than 12 seconds.

Jazz Carlin of Great Britain took home the silver, while Boglarka Kapas of Hungary grabbed the bronze.

In the final medal event of the night, the men took to the pool for the Men’s 50m freestyle. France’s Florent Manaudou of France was trying to win back-to-back Men’s 50m freestyles, as he won the gold in 2012. However, there was another American looking for a feel-good story in the person Anthony Ervin.

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Ervin won the gold medal in this event as a 19-year old during the 2000 Sydney Olympics but then did not qualify for another Olympics until 2012. It has been a long journey for Ervin, but on Friday night, he proved for the second time that he is the fastest swimmer in the world in the 50m freestyle.