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Ana Marcela Cunha of Brazil won the women's 10-kilometer Olympic marathon swimming event in Tokyo on Wednesday. Cunha touched first in 1 hour, 59 minutes, 30.8 seconds, finishing nine-tenths of a second ahead of defending champion Sharon van Rouwendaal of the Netherlands. Van Rouwendaal took silver in 1:59.31.7. Kareena Lee of Australia earned bronze in 1:59.32.5. Cunha won her first medal in her third Olympics. She was 10th five years ago in Rio de Janeiro and fifth in the 2008 Beijing Games. "We arrived here wanting, as much as you can, this medal," Cunha said. "I said to my coach to win this race will be very difficult for my opponents because I want it so hard, so much, and I'm really well prepared." American Haley Anderson finished sixth and her teammate, Ashley Twichell, was seventh. Cunha and Twichell traded the lead through the first five laps before the American dropped to fourth. Leonie Beck of Germany moved into first ahead of Cunha on Lap 6, when the top eight swimme
South Africa's Tatjana Schoenmaker was the star of the day, setting the first individual swimming world record at the Tokyo Olympics. Others shined, too. Evgeny Rylov completed a backstroke double for Russia, Emma McKeon gave the Aussie women another gold, and China earned a return trip to the top of the medal podium. The mighty Americans? For the first time in the meet, they spent the entire session Friday watching others win gold. Schoenmaker, a 24-year-old South African, won the women's 200-meter breaststroke with a time of 2 minutes, 18.95 seconds, breaking the mark of 2:19.11 set by Denmark's Rikke Moller Pedersen at the 2013 world championships in Barcelona. It was the third world record at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre, with the first two coming in women's relays. I wasn't expecting that at all," said Schoenmaker, who added to her silver in the 100 breast. It couldn't have been a better race. It still just doesn't sink in, maybe one day." Rylov thoroughly snuffed out America
US star Katie Ledecky has finally collected her first gold medal of the Tokyo Games. Ledecky has won the 1,500-meter freestyle, which made its Olympic debut for women this year. That helped the American star make up for what has so far been the worst showing of her Olympic career. About an hour after finishing fifth in the 200-meter freestyle, Ledecky held off teammate Erica Sullivan to win the metric mile in 15 minutes, 37.34 seconds. Sullivan claimed the silver in 15:41.41, while Germany's Sarah Kohler grabbed the bronze in 15:42.91.
Alaska has an Olympic swimming champion. Seventeen-year-old high schooler Lydia Jacoby gave the United States a victory in the women's 100-meter breaststroke, knocking off teammate and defending Olympic champion Lilly King. Jacoby was the first swimmer from the state ever to make the U.S. Olympic swimming team. Now, she's heading back to Anchorage with a gold medal, rallying to win in 1 minute, 4.95 seconds. South Africa's Tatjana Schoenmaker claimed the silver in 1:05.22, while King gave the Americans another medal by taking the bronze in 1:05.54. The American men have lost a backstroke race at the Olympic pool for the first time 1992. Russian athletes swept the top two spots in the 100-meter back, with Evgeny Rylov claiming the gold medal in 51.98 seconds and teammate Kliment Kolesnikov taking the silver in 52.00. The defending Olympic champion, American Ryan Murphy, settled for the bronze in 52.19. It was the first backstroke defeat for the U.S. men at the Olympics since the