For Phelps this Olympic journey has been more important than the destination, a trip he has shared with his fiance Nicole and infant son Boomer, who will both be in Rio.
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More supporters made their way into the Olympic Stadium, with the official attendance of 13,439 given, although that was more than 75 per cent short of capacity. “A little bit of emotion came over me”.
We last saw a gymnasts scored on a 10-point scale in 2006, Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci was the first to achieve it, in the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, on the balance beam and uneven bar. He now holds five, in the 400-meter individual medley, 200-meter individual medley, 100-meter butterfly, 4×100-meter freestyle relay and 4×200-meter freestyle relay.
I want to accomplish my goal of standing on the podium in Rio but no matter what happens, I know the experience will be personally transformative. Norman Pritchard, a Briton born in India, became the first athlete from India to win an Olympic medal in the 1900 Games. In addition, two current IU coaches will participate as well – Team USA head diving coach Drew Johansen and assistant women’s swimming coach Ray Looze. Phelps will compete in three individual and three relay events in Rio.
For 70-year-old poet Jorge Salomao, the Games will help Brazilians forget, for a moment at least, that they are facing their worst recession since the 1930s and that suspended President Dilma Rousseff is on the cusp of being ousted by an impeachment trial expected to end right after the Olympics close on August 21. For Beijing, I wanted to do something nobody else had done. But in the overall count, it will take home 59 medals, one more than Russian Federation, the survey said.
Then there’s his personal life, which has included a series of missteps including a second drunken-driving arrest in 2014.
Take a virtual tour of a few of the venues where the world’s athletes will compete for Gold.
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And, after insisting all along this truly would be his final Olympics, Phelps dropped a tantalizing hint that he might not be done. “I’m not. But I’m just going to say that”.
