Olympics 2016, swimming results: Katie Ledecky qualifies for 400-meter freestyle final

The first round of preliminary swimming heats from Sunday at the 2016 Rio Olympics are underway. The women’s 100-meter backstroke, 100-meter breaststroke, 400-meter freestyle and men’s 200-meter freestyle, 100-meter backstroke and 4x100-meter freestyle relay races are all on tap for Sunday.

The women’s 400-meter freestyle was the big event on the day because Katie Ledecky, one of the favorites, was in action. Ledecky took part in the fourth heat, and finished first in the heat. She was swimming world record pace for most of her run, but finished just underneath it. Still, she set an Olympic record at 3:58.71, and finished atop the event overall going into the finals.

Leah Smith of the US finished second in the third heat, and qualified for the finals after finishing third overall. Jazz Carlin finished in second, but she was still more than three seconds back of Ledecky.

In the first heat of the women’s 100-meter backstroke, Olivia Smoliga of the U.S. punched her ticket by finishing first in 59.60 seconds, just ahead of Madison Wilson at 59.92 seconds. Overall, Smoliga finished sixth in the preliminary round to advance to the semifinals. Fellow American Kathleen Baker finished first overall with a time of 58.84 seconds, just edging out Emily Seebohm of Australia. Kylie Masse of Canada rounded out the top three.

Second up on the day was the men’s 200-meter freestyle preliminary heats. Townley Haas of the U.S. finished in second place for his preliminary heat, which was more than enough to get him into the semifinals. In the sixth heat, Conor Dwyer finished on top to put himself through to the semifinals as well. Overall, Dwyer finished in fourth and Haas in fifth, moving on to the semifinals. Sun Yang of China finished on top.

In the women’s 100-meter breaststroke, Lily King of the U.S. passed Ruta Meilutyte just at the end of the sixth heat, after trailing for the first 70 meters or so. Her time was also the best overall, easily getting her into the semifinals. Katie Meili, also of the U.S., finished in third overall to advance, with Yulia Efimova of Russia splitting the two in second place.

Ryan Murphy and David Plummer will have some work to do in the men’s 100-meter backstroke if they want to medal, but they’re not far off after the preliminary heats. Murphy qualified in fourth place while Plummer qualified in fifth. Camille Lacourt, Xu Jiayu and Mitchell Larkin all finished ahead of those two.

Thanks to an amazing swim from Anthony Ervin, the United States took the win in the second heat of the men’s 4x100-meter freestyle relay. They trailed for most of the event, but Ervin set a world record split and the US took the fin in that heat and a spot in the finals. They qualified in second overall, just behind Russia and just ahead of Australia.