By Ian Ransom
PARIS (Reuters) - Katie Ledecky will target a record-equalling ninth gold medal for female Olympians and an unprecedented fourth 800 metres freestyle title in the same swoop on Saturday but her U.S. teammates may struggle to emulate her success in the relays.
Top seed for the evening session's final of her pet event, victory for Ledecky at La Defense Arena will see her draw level with former Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina's nine golds, the most for women in any Olympic sport.
She would also join fellow American great Michael Phelps as the only swimmer to win four Olympic golds in the same event.
Ledecky's stranglehold over the 800 shows little prospect of ending but the U.S. team's reign over the men's 4x100 medley relay is under threat from a Leon Marchand-inspired France.
A night after winning his fourth gold from four individual events, Marchand returned to the pool to a hero's welcome in the morning heats and swam the breaststroke leg to help France win their heat and qualify first for the final in 3:31.36.
"It was hard to get up this morning. I didn't sleep very well," Marchand told reporters.
"I'm a little tired with all the races I've done. But I got up for the relay ... Inevitably, the energy is different."
The U.S., undefeated in the event, qualified third behind China, while the U.S. women's 4x100 medley relay team, the runners-up in Tokyo, were fourth quickest into their final.
Olympic champions Australia secured top seed for the women's final 3:54.81, more than a second clear of second quickest Canada.
Earlier, evergreen Swede Sarah Sjostrom underlined her status as favourite for the 50m freestyle title with a blistering heat swim to take top seed for the semi-finals.
The 30-year-old's time of 23.85 seconds was 0.04 short of Australian Emma McKeon's Olympic record from the Tokyo Games.
Katarzyna Wasick, the 32-year-old Pole looking for a first medal at her fifth Games, qualified second quickest.
"Thirty is not old, obviously, that's just something that we created," she said. "But being 30 means you're strong, you're the strongest and experienced.
"So why not use that in your advantage?"
WIFFEN FATIGUED
Ireland's first Olympic champion Daniel Wiffen topped qualifying for the men's 1,500m freestyle relay final ahead of Italy's Gregorio Paltrinieri and is eyeing the long distance double after claiming the 800m gold.
Feeling a bit fatigued, Wiffen swam 14:40.34, six seconds off his personal best, but said Chinese swimmer Sun Yang's world record of 14:31.02 could be under threat in Sunday's final.
"I'm going to try and have a crack at this world record. If it happens, it happens," the Irishman told reporters.
"If it doesn't, it doesn't. But I think personally it's going to take that to win gold."
Apart from Ledecky's 800 race, another three gold medals will be up for grabs in the evening session.
The women's 200 individual medley final promises to be a thriller as Australia's backstroke queen Kaylee McKeown and Canada's teenage sensation Summer McIntosh battle for a third individual gold medal of the meet.
Three years after being beaten for the gold by American Caeleb Dressel, Hungary's former world champion Kristof Milak is top seed in the 100 butterfly final.
Finally, Britain will defend their mixed medley relay title in the last event on Saturday against challenges from the U.S., Australia and China.
(Reporting by Ian Ransom; Additional reporting by Rohith Nair and Alan Baldwin; Editing by Ken Ferris)
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