Missy Franklin Wins 200 Freestyle to make it three gold medals at the World Swimming Championships in Barcelona.
Missy Franklin is now three for three at the world swimming championships. She held off the Olympic champion, Federica Pellegrini of Italy, to win the 200m freestyle in a time of 1 minute, 54.81 seconds. Pelligrini finished 0.33 behind her, while Muffat settled for the bronze.
Results:
Gold: Missy Franklin (USA) 1:54.81
Silver: Federica Pellegrini (ITA) 1:55.14
Bronze: Camille Muffat (FRA) 1:55.72
The victory supported Franklin's decision to give up her bid for eight gold medals - a feat only achieved by Michael Phelps at a major championships.
She had been scheduled to swim two races in the evening session: the semifinals of the 50m backstroke, followed about 20 minutes later by the final of the 200m free.
Franklin and her coach, Todd Schmitz decided it was the best to drop the 50m backstroke so that she could focus on the 200m final.
Originally, with the 50m backstroke added to the seven events she competed in at London, Franklin had a chance to match Michael Phelps as the only swimmers to win that many events at a major championship.
The four-time Olympic champion is now three for three in golds in Barcelona with four events to go over the next four days. Tomorrow she has the 100m free preliminaries and semifinals, plus the 4×200m free relay along with Bethesda’s Katie Ledecky.
No woman has won seven medals at a single worlds. Do you think the 18-year-old Missy Franklin can do that?
Here is the Women’s 200 Freestyle Final Video:
