Nanterre, France | When Katie Ledecky arrived on the pool deck on Saturday night at Paris La Défense Arena for the first final of her fourth Olympics, she looked in the bin that sits behind each starting block, something of a trash can for warm-up clothes and flip-flops that are part of the strut to the stage. In the receptacle assigned to her spot – Lane 4, for the top seed in the women’s 400-meter freestyle – she found the green and gold sweatsuit of Australia’s Ariarne Titmus, the woman who was the first to track her down in this event.

In an unusual exchange for the normally teeth-grinding tension before a race for gold, Ledecky stepped toward Titmus. It could have been a moment to say, essentially: “Look, girl. I’m the top dog here. Move your stuff.”

Washington Post