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Katie Ledecky easily wins 400 meters at Olympic trials to punch Tokyo ticket

Although Ledecky won easily, she wasn't as fast as expected, raising the stakes for an expected showdown in Tokyo with the Aussie Terminator.

OMAHA, Neb — Katie Ledecky touched the wall far ahead of everyone else at the U.S. swimming trials.

No surprise there.

But she was taken aback by the time. It wasn't as fast as expected, raising the stakes for an expected showdown in Tokyo with the Aussie Terminator.

Ledecky earned a trip to her third Olympics with a never-in-doubt victory in the women's 400-meter freestyle Monday night.

She was a good five body lengths ahead of runner-up Paige Madden, touching the wall in 4 minutes, 1.27 seconds.

But the winning time was far off Ledecky's world record of 3:56.46, which she set almost five years ago at the Rio Olympics.

Another time on everyone's mind: Ariarne Titmus won the 400 free at the Australian trials on Sunday with the second-fastest performance in history — 3:56.90.

Ledecky wasn't even close to Titmus' performance.

“Very much a blur,” Ledecky said. “I thought I could go a little faster than that, so I’m a little surprised. But I’ll take it for now.”

Titmus, a 20-year-old known as “The Terminator,” has made it clear that she's not intimidated by Ledecky's longtime dominance in the distance events.

Titmus told reporters Down Under that the 24-year-old from the nation's capital is "not going to have it all her own way. I can’t control what she does, (but) if I do the best I can and put myself in the position to win a gold medal, it’s going to be a tough race.”

While Ledecky is a familiar face on the American team — she's won five gold medals and one silver at the last two Summer Games — the second night of the trials also signaled a changing of the guard.

Two Olympic rookies locked up their spots for Tokyo: teenager Torri Huske captured the women’s 100 butterfly, while Michael Andrew held on to win the men's 100 breaststroke.

Huske was under world-record pace at the turn but faded just a bit on the return leg. Still, she touched first in 55.66 seconds, breaking the national mark of 55.78 that she set the previous night in the semifinals.

The 18-year-old from Arlington, Virginia, came up short of the world record (55.48) set five years ago by Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom at the Rio Games.

“I don't even know what to do,” Huske said. “I’ve been thinking about this a lot. I feel like it hasn’t really sunk in. It’s really crazy.”

An even younger swimmer, 16-year-old Claire Curzan of Cary, North Carolina, took the expected second spot on the Olympic team at 56.43.

Andrew has taken an unorthodox path to the Olympic team. He turned pro at age 14 and was trained by his father in a backyard pool, using methods that stressed short bursts of sprint swimming over the grueling routine of endless laps.

It paid off in Omaha. The 22-year-old Andrew pulled ahead on the outward lap and desperately held on at the end, touching in 58.73 — a bit slower than he went while setting two American records the day before.

Andrew Wilson was second, just one-hundredth of a second behind. He is also expected to make the Olympic team. Missing out was Nic Fink, who settled for third in 58.80.

Huske and Curzan knocked off 2016 Olympian Kelsi Dahlia, who was known as Kelsi Worrell when she competed in Rio. Dahlia was fourth in 56.80.

Huske is one the swimmers who benefited from an extra year of training when the Tokyo Olympics were postponed a year because of the pandemic.

She is set to attend Stanford in the fall.

“I feel like (the one-year delay) really helped me because I was able to work on my strength training,” Huske said. “I feel like it makes a big difference in my second 50. I tend to fly and die — how fast can I go out and hang on.”

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