If the USA women had not captured the landmark medal, Michael Phelps and the men’s 4×100 medley relay squad would have done so, the quartet winning gold in the next event in the pool, which was also the final race on the Rio swimming programme.
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It seems nearly impossible for three athletes to finish at the exact same time, but such three-way ties had happened 20 times before at the Olympics, according to sports historian Bill Mallon.
Murphy set the pace for the Americans in the first leg of the relay, recording a new backstroke world record of 51.85 seconds as Britain’s Chris Walker-Hebbon finished his stint in sixth.
Great Britain won the silver in this event; Ryan Murphy Team took 3:29:24 minutes and Australia won the bronze where they took 3 minutes, 29.93 seconds.
Phelps said earlier Saturday on a Facebook live broadcast that the race is the last of his storied career. Regardless of which team that is – and it could be 2008 and 2012 Olympic silver medalist Spain – the USA will need to play better if it wants to win its third consecutive Olympic gold medal.
Phelps said that his legacy will not lay on his record-breakings or in his Olympics medals but in the next swimmers’ generations he has inspired with his victories, silver medals, retirements and powerful comebacks.
The Somali-born British runner now has three Olympic gold medals and will defend his Olympic 5,000 title later this week, trying to become the first man to win back-to-back Olympic long-distance doubles since the 1970s.
The Americans completed a haul of 33 medals in the pool including 16 golds, with Australia and Hungary trailing on three golds each. That 977 total counts a gymnastics team gold from 1904 won by a Philadelphia club that included an Austrian gymnast.
The American legend, Michael Phelps bowed out with 28 medals from five Olympics after making his debut in 2000. It just feels good to know that the hard work did pay off and I was able to fight through some of the times that I went through the last two years and get back to where I actually wanted to be.
“This is what I wanted to finish my career”, he said. At London Olympic, he won 4 Gold with 2 Silver. “This is it. I said it before, but you guys can say, this is the last time”.
The 19-year-old Ledecky joked that she was proud to be part of Phelps’ final Olympics – twice.
America grabbed the most gold during the St. Louis games in 1904, when it stacked up 79 medals.
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New Zealand’s Mahe Drysdale and Croatia’s Damir Martin crossed the finish line in the men’s single sculls side by side, not knowing which one of them was the new Olympic champion. “She does swimming, not track and field, so I’m not anxious about that”.
