Ledecky leads in 1500m freestyle heats, eyes historic 12th Olympic medal

NANTERRE, France, July 30 (AP): Katie Ledecky got started on what she hopes will be her first gold medal of the Paris Olympics, topping the field in the preliminaries of the women's 1,500-meter freestyle on Tuesday.
Finishing more than a half-lap ahead of the closest challenger in her heat, Ledecky posted a time of 15 minutes, 47.43 seconds.
She'll have the prime lane in the middle of the pool for the final Wednesday. Her prime challenger appears to be Italy's Simona Quadarella, who was second-fastest in the heats at 15:51.19. The only other swimmers to break 16 minutes were Anastasiia Kirpichnikova of France (15:52.46) and Isabel Gose of Germany (15:53.27). Ledecky, who earned a bronze in the 400 freestyle, is looking to lock down the 12th Olympic medal of her career.
That would tie her with fellow Americans Dara Torres, Jenny Thompson and Natalie Coughlin for the most ever by a female swimmer.