Phelps rival Ryan Lochte did not medal.
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He’s got one more individual event at what he insists will really be his final Olympics – remember, he already retired once – and will be looking to add a fourth straight gold in the 100 butterfly to his staggering resume.
“I wrote my parents an email this morning just saying thank you and I started bawling on my bed and then my roommates came in and comforted me”.
Ledecky joined Debbie Meyer as the only women to sweep the three longer freestyle events at the same Olympics. Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom finished third. The winning time was 2 minutes, 20.30 seconds.
It seems nearly impossible for three athletes to finish at the exact same time, but such three-way ties had happened 20 times before at the Olympics, according to sports historian Bill Mallon. Phelps finished in a three-way tie for second place. Shi Jinglin claimed bronze for China.
Meanwhile, a crowd of American athletes nearby, led by the United States men’s basketball team, cheered and applauded. Mitch Larkin of Australia takes silver and Evgeny Rylov of Russian Federation gets bronze.
In 2015, he showed that he was going to be a medal contender for Rio when he finished third at the world championships in Russian Federation, albeit with Phelps absent.
Japan’s Rie Kaneto took gold in the women’s 200-meter breaststroke final after edging out Russia’s Yulia Efimova. The historic win brought his lifetime medal count to a whopping 26-22 of which are gold.
But it was all Ma on Thursday.
For Phelps, this was the first event of these games in which he’s failed to win a gold medal.
Twelve other swimmers would have had their bronze medals upgraded to silver, including Australia’s Andrew Lauterstein and Ukraine’s Andriy Serdinov in the 100-meter butterfly.
Defending Olympic champion Florent Manaudou looks like the swimmer to beat again in the 50-meter freestyle.
And what did he do before Dad’s big night on Thursday?
In light of Phelps’s unbelievable stint at the ongoing Olympics, the 31-year-old’s personal life has also been put in the spotlight especially with his upcoming wedding to fiancée Nicole Johnson. Ervin tied with Ukraine’s Andriy Hovorov for the second-fastest time at 21.46. Another American, Nathan Adrian, took the bronze.
An official says Bulgarian steeplechase athlete Silvia Danekova has been provisionally suspended days before she is due to run in the Olympics after an initial positive drug test in Brazil.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
“Winning isn’t everything but it does have a galvanising impact and it inspires and that’s important”, the President of the Singaporean National Olympic Committee Tan Chuan-Jin told AFP.
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The 33-year-old runner competed in the Olympics four years ago but did not move beyond the heats.
