Phelps’ swimming career ended with his 23rd gold medal in the 4×100 medley relay medal on Saturday, which extended his record as the most decorated Olympian of all-time.
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If that was the end – and Phelps insists it was – what a way to go out. One night after his only setback of the games, an upset loss to Joseph Schooling in the 100 fly, Phelps was back on top.
In the stands, his fiancee, Nicole Johnson, bounced along to the music with their son, 3-month-old Boomer, cradled in her arms.
Michael Phelps left the Olympic pool for the last time on Saturday having fulfilled a childhood dream, but it is clear he will not be walking away from the sport that has turned him into a global household name. He plans to marry Johnson after the Olympics and said he wants to watch his son grow, maybe even dole out a swimming lesson or two.
Most of the USA swim team was in the stands to watch Phelps’ finale, including the biggest female star of the games, Katie Ledecky.
Her teammate Michael Phelps is a big part of the medal count, of course. He initially retired after the 2012 London Olympics, only to decide about a year later to return.
The Americans, who failed to medal at last year’s world championships, had looked in peril when two-time doping violator Yulia Efimova gave Russian Federation the lead on the breaststroke. But it also sparked a turnaround in his life. You get drawn into him.
He quit drinking, reconnected with his estranged father, got engaged, moved to Arizona along with Bowman, and became a father for the first time.
“I’m not going four more years and I’m standing by that”, he said.
Phelps and his teammates took the deck to a thunderous ovation and Ryan Murphy got the Americans off to a blazing start, clocking a world record 51.85sec on the opening backstroke leg. He skipped workouts so frequently that his coach resorted to organizing Friend Fridays, inviting Phelps’ non-swimming friends to a pool workout in hopes that he would show up, too.
He wouldn’t be for long. After Miller finished his leg of breaststroke, Phelps raced ahead of the competition in the butterfly, so that Adrian could close out the night with a gold for the team.
It wasn’t in doubt after that. China Gold: 13, Silver: 11, Bronze: 17, Total: 41 3.
The 2016 Summer Olympics are underway with the finest athletes from around the world trying to claim the gold in Rio.
“The gold medal means so much but also to the team because we had such an unbelievable energy”, said Blume. “It’s a nice number”.
The women’s quartet of Kathleen Baker, Lilly King, Simone Manuel and Dana Vollmer made history, but were made to work.
“It’s really special”, Manuel said.
The 24-year-old clocked 10.71 seconds to hold off the USA’s Tori Bowie, who took silver in 10.83. Now Britain places third with 10 golds just behind the USA and China, who just claimed one silver and three bronze medals in the day.
The U.S. women’s saber team won a bronze medal Saturday with a 45-30 victory over Italy, thereby atoning for some disappointing finishes in the individual event.
Pernille Blume, who swam Denmark’s anchor leg, earlier won gold in the women’s 50m free, inflicting more heartbreak on Australia’s Cate Campbell after her 100m flop.
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Meanwhile, Venus Williams won the shot at another first when she and mixed doubles partner Rajeev Ram advanced to a gold medal match against fellow Americans Bethanie Matteck-Sands and Jack Sock.
