Italian swimmer Federica Pellegrini qualified for the women’s 200m freestyle final at the Tokyo Olympics, her fifth consecutive career after those in Athens, Beijing, London and Rio de Janeiro. The only other athlete to succeed in the same discipline was the American swimmer Michael Phelps, in the 200m butterfly. Pellegrini qualified with a time of 1 min 56.44 s, the seventh in the semifinals: the final will take place at 3.30 on Wednesday 28 July.
The favorites in the final will be the Australian Ariarne Titmus, who set the best time of the semifinals, and the American Kathleen Ledecky, winner of gold in this discipline at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics. Other swimmers who could do well are Siobhan Bernadette Haughey, from Hong Kong, and China’s Yang Junxuan.
Federica Pellegrini, 32, had won gold in the 200m freestyle at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, while five years ago in Rio de Janeiro she finished fourth, and sixth in the 4 × 100 relay. At the 2019 World Championships she had returned to winning gold in the 200m freestyle.
Nothing else to add, the pictures speak for themselves ????????????????#Tokyo2020 | #Olympic Games | #HomeOfOlympics | #ItaliaTeam | #Swimming pic.twitter.com/qR6UYsjY1Z
— Eurosport IT (@Eurosport_IT) July 27, 2021
