“It’s the start of something new”. And after every race, he heard the crowd (and his fellow US swimmers) chant: “Four more years!” “This is how I wanted to finish my career. This was the cherry on top of the cake I wanted”. That win sealed the 23rd gold medal for the Olympian.
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The victor of the 100m and 200m backstroke races, Ryan Murphy, set a new 100m world record of 51.85s during the 800 medley relay. “He’s helped me through some of the worst times in my life and he’s been there every step of the way and I’m forever thankful”.
Michael Phelps has won so many more medals than any other Olympian that it makes for a pretty boring discussion when he’s compared to individual athletes.
On the return lap, Phelps powered through the water with his windmill of a stroke, surging ahead of James Guy to pass off a lead to the anchor Adrian.
Lochte, the 12-time medalist whose Rio Olympics ended Thursday night with a disappointing fifth-place swim in the 200-meter individual medley, declined to announce his retirement Friday.
Phelps finished just short of perfection, taking silver behind Joseph Schooling in the 100m fly, but he says that’s just how the final meet of his career was supposed to go. It turned out pretty cool.
While the record-holding swimmer has made it clear he doesn’t intend to race again in 2020 when the Games are held in Tokyo, Japan, we’d sure love to see him come back for one more go-round.
“When I made a decision to come back I wanted to do it the right way. Being able to cap it off with these Games is just the ideal way to finish”.
PHOTO FINISH: After rowing for more than a mile, the gold medal came down to an inch.
“We are in great shape, not only with Katie but with the team that we have now, ” Phelps said moments before Ledecky’s interview. Phelps dove into the pool on the third leg as the USA tailed by.61 seconds.
“We’re here getting that 1,000th medal for the U.S. and it seems absolutely incredible. It makes us feel like we’re part of that legacy”. The athlete with the most medals in Olympic history had a natural ability to grasp concepts quickly as a swimmer.
In the day’s other final, Gregorio Paltrinieri of Italy won the men’s 1,500 freestyle in 14:34.57, beating Connor Jaeger of the USA (14:39.48) and Italian compatriot Gabriele Detti (14:40.86). And everything just really hit hard’.
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As NPR points out, if Phelps was not a person but a country competing in Rio, he would have more gold medals than all but 32 of the 205 countries present, and that includes medal tallies from the summer AND winter games.
