Phelps blew away Ryan Lochte – and everyone else, for that matter – to win his fourth gold medal of the Rio Olympics and 22nd overall with a victory in the 200-meter individual medley Thursday night.
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With the USA medal machine already humming, piling up gold in the swimming pool and gymnastics, the milestone could go to one of the Rio Games biggest names like Michael Phelps or Simone Biles or it could belong to an unknown competing in men’s Greco-Roman wrestling or sailing.
Since 2000, Michael Phelps has established himself as the greatest Olympian of all-time, accumulating an astounding 23 gold medals from the 2004 Olympics in Barcelona to the Rio Olympics in 2016.
The United States’ 1,000th gold medal could be won by either the men’s or women’s swimming relay team Saturday night.
The U.S. women’s sabre fencing team is in the quarterfinals of its competition at 8 a.m. ET.
Simone Biles will be back in action in all three of the other finals, including the vault at 1:47 p.m. after winning the qualifying be almost half a point.
Men’s preliminary round, Group B, 2:15 p.m. – USA Network (live): Argentina and Brazil duke it out. Gary Antuanne Russell and Vargas are still alive in their weight divisions, and top medal hope Shakur Stevenson doesn’t even begin competition until Sunday. Other stars in action include Rafael Nadal, who is into the bronze medal match for singles, and Venus Williams, who teamed up with Rajeev Ram, and will play for the gold in mixed doubles.
In track and field, the USA has participants in all five medal events.
China only bagged one gold medal as world number one Ma Long defeated Zhang Jike in the final to win the table tennis men’s singles gold. Galen Rupp is the Americans’ best bet in the men’s 10,000-meter at 8:27 p.m. Connor Jaeger and Jordan Wilimovsky will swim in the men’s 1,500-meter freestyle final at 9:11.
The gymnastic event finals take place today starting at 1 p.m., including the men’s floor, women’s vault, men’s pommel horse and women’s uneven bars.
We’ll continue to update this article throughout the day as the results of the various events come in.
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The U.S. won six medals on Thursday, five of which were gold, upping its grand total at the Games to 38, compared to China’s 30.
