LONDON – The Colorado teenager Missy Franklin won the 100-meter backstroke to earn her first gold medal, outracing Emily Seebohm of Australia in a stirring duel that completed a wild 20 minutes at the London Aquatics Centre for her.
Doug Mills/The New York TimesRyan Lochte after coming in fourth in the 200 freestyle.
Franklin’s time of 58.33 was just a tenth of a second off the Olympic record Seebohm had set in qualifying, and it came while she was still wet from the semifinal of the 200 freestyle.
Franklin, a 17-year-old from Centennial, Colo., dived into the pool for her 200 free semi at 7:38 p.m., and rose out two minutes later with the last spot for the final. But instead of leaving the pool deck she slipped into the adjacent diving pool and began swimming warm-down laps.
Taken to the ready room soon after, she returned to the blocks and promptly defeated Seebohm, who had twice gone under Franklin’s career best in the event at this meet, to win the 100 back.
By 7:53, she was tugging off one of her two swim caps and slipping off her pink goggles. She may have to get used to the schedule: Franklin, who already had a bronze from a relay, plans to swim seven events in London.
Frenchman Beats Lochte AgainYannick Agnel of France won a duel with Ryan Lochte for the second time in 24 hours, capturing the gold medal in the 200-meter freestyle.
Lochte and Agnel had swum side by side in the anchor leg of the 400 freestyle relay on Sunday night. Lochte had begun their leg with a body-length lead and held it for 50 meters. But Agnel charged and Lochte faded in the final 25, giving France the gold.
Agnel led start to finish in the 200 on Monday night, winning in 1 minute 43.14 seconds, but this time there was no silver as a consolation prize for Lochte. Yang Sun of China and Taehwan Park of South Korea tied for second at 1:44.93. Each will get a silver.
Lochte finished fourth in 1:45.04.
Yang had become the first Chinese man to win a swimming gold when he captured the 400 freestyle on Sunday, defeating Park in that race. On Monday, their battle was a draw.
One-Two for U.S. in BackstrokeThe 100 backstroke will always be special to Matt Grevers. Now it will be unforgettable.
Grevers, who proposed to his wife on the podium after winning the event at a Grand Prix meet in February, forever cemented his link to the race by winning the gold medal at the London Olympics on Monday night. Grevers set an Olympic record in the final, winning in 52.16 seconds.
Grevers’s United States teammate Nick Thoman won the silver in 52.92 and Ryosuke Irie of Japan took the bronze (52.97).
Grevers was the silver medalist in the event in Beijing four years ago, in a fast time of 53.11. But Aaron Peirsol went even faster that day (52.54) to break the world record and snatch the gold.
Now Grevers has one too.
15-Year-Old Wins 100 BreaststrokeRuta Meilutyte won Lithuania’s first Olympic swimming gold, holding off the American Rebecca Soni in the final of the 100 breaststroke.
Meilutyte, 15, finished in 1 minute 5.47 seconds, just ahead of Soni’s 1:05.55 in a race that began late after Breeja Larson, another American, prematurely left the blocks after an errant starting beep. Instead of disqualifying Larson for a false start, however, the officials replaced the speaker at the start, while the swimmers stood by nervously. Larson wound up sixth, in 1:06.96.
The crowd, perhaps in recognition of the fact that Meilutyte goes to school in Britain, cheered her victory almost as if claiming it for the host country, and she sat with her hands to her face on one of the lane lines while the cheers rained down.
