In a historic race, Michael Phelps brought down the curtain on his glittering Olympic career when he helped the United States of America win 4x100m medley relay gold at the Rio Games on Saturday, taking his personal tally to 23. She outscored her opponents 15-5 while on the strip, by far the most dominating performance of anyone in the match.
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Michael ends his Olympic career having won 23 gold medals, three silver and two bronze. Britain held on for silver, with Australia nabbing bronze.
It seemed only apt that Phelps and his teammates would extend that record to 1,001 golds shortly after.
In the previous race, Simone Manuel anchored the United States women’s 4x100m medley team to the 1,000th gold medal in her country’s Olympic history.
“Done. Done. Done”, Phelps said Monday, repeating what he said when he retired after the 2012 London Games.
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Connor Jaeger (USA), Gregorio Paltrinieri (ITA) and Gabriele Detti (ITA) with their medals after the men’s 1500m freestyle final in the Rio 2016 Summer Olympic Games at Olympic Aquatics Stadium.
“He’s a father figure to me”, Phelps said of Bowman, his coach since age 11 who he followed to Arizona when Bowman was named ASU’s swim and dive coach past year.
She also blew away the rest of the field, winning the 400 by almost five seconds and taking the 800 by more than 11 seconds over her closest competitor in beating her own world record by two seconds. “This is how I wanted to finish my career”. In Rio 2016, Phelps did not only gave his best on every single trial but also showed his human side each time he dropped tears while receiving a new medal.
Michael Phelps of reacts after the US team won the men’s 4 x 100 IM relay, the last of Phelps’ performances at the Rio Olympics, and likely in his career. Swimmer Ryan Murphy said that “maybe it’s his last race, maybe not”.
“I was prepared for any circumstance, whether we were ahead or behind”, Ledecky said.
Only the final two swimming events remained: the 4×100 medley relays for men and women, featuring what was touted as Michael Phelps’ finale.
When asked in December if she was nervous about her budding reputation as America’s star closer and anchor leg, Manuel said, “I think a little bit”.
Seeded second, Kerber won the Australian Open in January and was the runner-up at Wimbledon last month. They swam in different semifinal heats, with Schooling winning his and Phelps getting beat by Cseh in the other.
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