Phelps swam the butterfly third leg of a tight race, pushing the U.S. from second behind Great Britain up to first before freestyle specialist Nathan Adrian saw it home for gold in an Olympic record time of three minutes 27.95 seconds.
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Phelps had said the same after the previous Games in London in 2012 and speculation had already begun that Rio would be the last time we would see Phelps in the pool.
Phelps said he had felt himself “starting to crack” with emotion as he went to the Rio pool Saturday where he played a decisive role in his final relay victory.
“This is how I wanted to finish my career, the way I wanted to”, he said.
Australia came up second with a time of 3:55.00 to take silver and Denmark rounded out the podium one-hundredth of a second later.
“It’s possibly the greatest choke in Olympic history”, said 100m world record holder Cate, who finished fifth.
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.
The women’s 400 metres medley relay was first, and the American quartet delivered an emphatic victory in a time of 3:53.13.
Paltrinieri, the 1500m gold medallist at last year’s world championships in Russian Federation, led from the outset and swam under world record pace for much of the race before easing off in the final laps.
Phelps entered the pool with the U.S. trailing Great Britain after Ryan Murphy’s opening backstroke and Cody Miller’s breaststroke leg. He had the third leg of the race, the butterfly, and did his job well.
Phelps, who now has 28 Olympic medals in total, had earlier told fans in a Facebook Live chat that Saturday would be the last time he graced the Olympic pool.
Phelps remains the USA’s most golden athlete – responsible for 2.2 percent of the nation’s entire haul. “And it turned out pretty cool”. It’s something that I wanted for so long.
Whereas Phelps demonstrated that he was the best athlete of the modern era in the Beijing 2008 Games, when he broke Mark Spitz’s record of seven first-place finishes at any Olympic Games by winning eight gold medals, 2016 has proven that he is the best Olympian ever.
“I’m just happy we had another shot”, Zagunis said, noting that four years ago there had been no women’s team saber.
“I wouldn’t change anything”, he said. “In London we didn’t have this chance”.
Less than an hour before, its women’s 4x100m relay medley team made their country the first to win 1,000 gold medals at the Summer Olympics. “It makes us feel like we’re part of that legacy”.
“A thousandth gold for team U.S.”, said Manuel, who swam the anchor leg for her second gold of the games and second medal of the night.
Phelps soaked up aspects of the Olympic experience he previously ignored-serving as a captain on the United States team for the first time, carrying the United States flag at the opening ceremony he had never before attended.
But the US team that many considered a gold medal lock won’t even win its group outright with a loss Sunday, either tying France or sharing first with the French and Australia at 4-1.
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World champion Gregorio Paltrinieri blazed to gold in the men’s 1,500m in the absence of defending champion Sun Yang, who crushed out in the heats blaming a cold, the Italian smashing a quality field to win in 14:34.57.
