But Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time, split 50.33 seconds in his 100-meter butterfly leg to give the US the lead, putting an exclamation point on a historic career that started when he burst on the scene as a 15-year-old at the 2000 Summer Olympics.
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Joseph Schooling of Singapore, a rising junior and all-American swimmer at Texas, shocked the world as he clinched the gold medal of the 100m butterfly ahead of the most decorated Olympian of all time.
Phelps, who now has 27 medals, had been hoping to win the event for the fourth successive Games but his Midas touch deserted him and he had to settle for another colour medal for the first time in Rio. The 4×100 medley relay on Saturday will be his final farewell.
But that was just the start of the superstar show at the 15,000-seat stadium at the heart of Olympic park.
Ledecky became the first swimmer since American Debbie Meyer in 1968 to sweep the 200-, 400- and 800-meter freestyle events in a single Olympics.
By the time Ledecky reached for the wall on her 16th lap Friday night, shattering her own world record by almost two seconds with a time of 8 minutes, 4.79 seconds, there wasn’t another swimmer close enough to appear in a photo of the finish. Britain’s Jazz Carlin won her second silver in 8:16.17s and Boglarka Kapas of Hungary took the bronze.
“Being able to close the door on this sport how I want to, that’s why I’m happy now”, he said. It was my last one here.
She did that and more.
Like many of his contemporaries in Rio, who grew up idolizing Phelps, he keeps an old photo of himself as a bespectacled teenager with the American that was taken at a meeting in Singapore after the 2008 Beijing Olympics. “Chad and I have had some races over the last four years and Laszlo and I – I can’t even remember when I first raced him… so it’s kind of special and a decent way to finish my last individual race”.
However, team-mate Ryan Lochte thinks Phelps will be in Tokyo in 2020. “I’m ready to retire”. This is it. I said it a bunch before. “I felt like I did when I was 18”.
Canada’s long-distance ace, Ryan Cochrane, will get a shot at third consecutive medal in the 1,500-metre freestyle on Saturday night, the closing program of the Olympic meet.
The winning margin of 0.75 seconds was the largest since American Mark Spitz won gold at the 1972 Munich Games and the time was faster than Phelps’ winning time four years ago in London. Just so you guys don’t beat me to death if I come back.
So it was only natural that she would be asked about Simone Manuel’s stunning gold medal in the 100 freestyle the night before.
Pernille Blume won gold with a furious sprint from one of the pool to the other. The victory gave Phelps his 17th Olympic gold.
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“That’s just pure joy and surprise and excitement”, she said. Earlier today, Ledecky confessed to having a bit of a sore throat from cheering for Manuel.
