The Welsh swimmer added 800m freestyle silver to her 400m freestyle medal after being beaten again by record-breaking American Katie Ledecky.
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Ledecky is moving to Stanford University later this year.
After winning four gold medals at these games and looking unbeatable, Phelps finally ran out of steam in what was the final individual race of his career unless he decides to come out of retirement again.
Ledecky, who owns the top 13 times in history of the women’s 800m freestyle after winning gold in a world-record time of 8:04.79 on Friday, was only trying for a best time in her final swim in Rio. But he’ll have to do with some help from his teammates, swimming in the butterfly leg of the 400 medley relay on the final night of swimming on Saturday.
Jazz Carlin finally touched in 8:16.17 to claim the silver, just ahead of Hungary’s Boglarka Kapas grabbing the bronze in 8:16.37. “I just wanted to enjoy it all and put my very best swim out there”.
She is the first Olympian to take the 200m, 400m and 800m gold at one Games since another USA teenager, Debbie Meyer, achieved the feat at Mexico City in 1968 – the year the 800m was added to the programme.
The scoreboard replays the United States’ Katie Ledecky celebrating after she won gold in the women’s 800-meter freestyle at the Summer Olympics, during the seventh inning of a baseball game between the Washington Nationals and.
Ledecky led from the start and inexorably stretched out the gap over her opponents to finish in eight minutes, 4.79 seconds, beating her previous mark of 8:06.68 set in Austin, Texas in January.
Ledecky and Debbie Meyer are now the only female swimmers to sweep the three longest freestyle races. The bronze went to Canada’s Hilary Caldwell.
“It feels like gold that I’m after her”, she said of Ledecky. At age 19, she’s both the youngest member of the US swim team and its most sure-thing victor.
Anthony Ervin of the United States won the gold medal in the 50-meter freestyle at the Rio Olympics. Another American, Nathan Adrian, took the bronze. Then, Ervin walked away from swimming and embarked on a journey to find his goal in life.
Maya DiRado of the United States has denied Katinka Hosszu’s bid to become a four-time gold medalist at the Rio Olympics.
“To come away with two silvers is wonderful”, Carlin said.
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Former double Olympic champion Rebecca Adlington praised Carlin’s silver double at Rio and insists her success in Brazil has “written off” any disappointment from London 2012. “I tried to keep it all under control, but there’s been a lot of tears these last 24 hours”.
