Now turning to other news, it’s goodbye to Michael Phelps.
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The American, far and away the most decorated athlete in Olympic history, finished with five golds and one silver in Rio after signing off in dramatic style, as he came to the rescue in the 4x100m medley final.
Phelps began the butterfly leg with the U.S. in second position, but he set a blistering pace to give his team the lead by the end of his 100m.
As Adrian touched the wall to finish off the victory, Phelps gathered the other relay swimmers, Ryan Murphy and Cody Miller, in his arms. Although there have been hints that he might be back for Tokyo in 2020, there was perhaps a passing-of-the-torch moment on Friday at the 100-meter butterfly, when Singapore’s Joseph Schooling relegated Phelps to his only silver in Rio.
In the stands, his fianc￩e, Nicole Johnson, bounced along to the music with their son, 3-month-old Boomer, cradled in her arms.
“I couldn’t really smile”, Schooling said.
Most of the US swim team was in the stands to watch Phelps’ finale, including the biggest female star at the pool, Katie Ledecky.
But no one was more dominant than the 19-year-old Ledecky, whose four golds included two world record-shattering performances. He initially retired after the 2012 London Olympics, only to decide about a year later to return to the pool.
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 personal life.
He quit drinking, reconnected with his estranged father, got engaged, moved to Arizona along with Bowman and became a father for the first time.
Standing atop the medal podium for the 23rd time, Michael Phelps teared up, bit his lip and gave a little nod.
“I’ve said this to some of you, it’s not done growing”, he told reporters when he qualified for Rio.
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.
Phelps dove into the pool in second place.
James Guy turned first for Team GB at the halfway mark of the butterfly, but Phelps had a long look at the Briton as they came up from the turn and put down the pedal as he powered through to fittingly touch for the final time in front.
It wasn’t in doubt after that.
The Americans finished in three minutes, 27.95 seconds, an Olympic record, to win by 1.29 seconds.
Australia´s Mitch Larkin, Jake Packard, David Morgan and Kyle Chalmers took bronze in 3:29.93. “Being able to cap it off with these Games is just the ideal way to finish”.
“A thousandth gold for team US”, said Manuel, who swam the anchor leg for her second gold of the games and second medal of the night. “It’s a nice number”.
The medley relay team of Kathleen Baker, Lilly King, Dana Vollmer and Simone Manuel won the penultimate swimming event of the 2016 Olympics. “It’s really special. Just sharing that with three other women, it’s the icing on top of the cake”.
Nathan Adrian of the United States took the bronze in the shortest and fastest race on the programme.
Earlier in the night, Manuel took silver in the 50 free.
The US have won the event at every Olympics since 1960, except the 1980 Games in Moscow which they boycotted. The U.S. has won 33 swimming medals at Rio 2016, its most since 33 at the Sydney Games in 2000.
He found himself drawn back to the pool, and that’s why we got to watch him win five more gold medals here in Rio.
The night, though, belonged to Phelps, who walked out of the arena for the final time carrying an American flag handed to him by his mother from her front-row seat, right next to Johnson and little Boomer.
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The US’ two victories on Saturday gave them 16 out of a possible 32 swimming gold medals here.
