The American formidable foursome, who each won a medal in their respective individual events, clocked in with a time of 3 minutes, 53.13 seconds to give the United States its 1,000th gold medal awarded at the Summer Games.
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Britain’s Fran Halsall finished fourth in 24.13.
Simone Manuel won a gold medal (the 1000th gold medal earned by Team USA) anchoring the 400 meter medley relay. Greta Andersen won the 100 free and Karen Margrethe Harup took the 100 backstroke at the 1948 London Olympics.
It was the third time in the space of 48 hours that the quartet of Katie Archibald, Laura Trott, Elinor Barker and Joanna Rowsell-Shand had set a new world mark in the 4km race.
“‘ I just got up and wanted to stick with the guys and stay strong”, Farah said after the match. It was a tight finish, just as one would expect in the 50 free, and it was Dane who would go on to make history in the event, giving Denmark their first Olympic gold in swimming since 1948.
Denmark’s last previous Olympic swimming medal was Lotte Friis’s bronze in 800 freestyle at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
She had been fastest qualifier in the heats and semi-finals but faced an intimidating array of rivals on the blocks before the quick thrash down the pool.
It’s fitting, of course, that Phelps’ final race resulted in gold, the 23rd gold medal of his career and 28th Olympic medal overall. Cate was in fifth place and Bronte, the 2015 world champion in the 50m freestyle, finished seventh.
“The 50 is kind of a lottery and it just hasn’t been my week obviously”. I couldn’t be too disappointed.
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“I executed a good race and I can’t be too hard on myself”.
