As NPR points out, if Phelps was not a person but a country competing in Rio, he would have more gold medals than all but 32 of the 205 countries present, and that includes medal tallies from the summer AND winter games. 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. Britain held on for silver, with Australia nabbing bronze.
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The men’s medley relay followed with its own moment of glory, maintaining an all-time ideal Olympic record in the event when the US has participated.
As Adrian touched the wall to finish off the victory, Phelps gathered the other relay swimmers, Ryan Murphy and Cody Miller, in his arms.
If the U.S. 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 very next event in the pool.
The Americans survived a stout challenge from the British, keyed by a lightning breaststroke leg by world-record holder Adam Peaty.
Max Whitlock has floored his rivals in the men’s gymnastics by taking two gold medals for Team GB in the space of an hour. This is an impressive feat, considering the old record had been standing for over 2,000 years.
Olympic rowing ended Saturday with Great Britain winning the men’s eight gold to top the medal table for the third successive Games. The 19-year-old already has two golds during the games after leading the “Final Five” to the team title and becoming the fourth straight American woman to win the all-around last week.
The first is that you can watch the live stream online – simply go to Seven’s Rio 2016 Olympic Games live-streaming website and select the appropriate channel. “I know there were a lot of questions coming in, but to see the USA dominate the sport of swimming again, it’s great”, Sakovich said. “It’s a nice number”.
Manuel might have also had a chance to grab the 1,000th earlier in the 50 freestyle but finished 0.02 seconds behind Denmark’s Pernille Blume.
The night, though, belonged to Phelps, who walked out of the arena for final time carrying an American flag handed to him by his mother from her front-row seat, right next to Johnson and little Boomer. Sakovich said success like this can have a long lasting effect.
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“I don’t think you’re going to see another Michael”, added Bowman. Simone Manuel of the USA earned another Olympic medal in the pool, this one a silver in the women’s 50-meter freestyle.
