Lewis had sought to counsel Phelps when the swimmer was considering his Olympic comeback.
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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. The Americans have won every world championship and Olympic gold since 2006.
Britain also took a women’s cycling team pursuit gold and men’s eight gold in rowing.
The USA’s two victories on Saturday gave them 16 out of a possible 32 swimming gold medals here.
Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri produced a stunning front-running display to win the men’s 1500m in a time of 14:34.57, ahead of Connor Jaeger and Gabriele Detti.
The three-time defending champions were ousted by Sweden on penalties following a 1-1 draw in the quarterfinals on Friday.
Although the International Olympic Committee looks down on behavior that would tarnish the reputation of the games, a spokesman said Solo’s remarks would fall under sportsmanship.
He insists he won’t be coming out of retirement again for Tokyo in 2020.
“That’s something that I’ve been gunning for for a long time and to do it in the most watched race, Michael’s last race is something special”, Murphy said. “It’s a lot to think about”.
In the year post-Athens, it rose 7 percent, after Beijing there was an 11 percent increase, while what appeared to be his Games swansong in London sparked a 13 percent rise in those taking up the sport stateside.
Phelps, the most-decorated Olympian ever, picked five golds and a silver at Rio, his fifth Games. Phelps’ teammate Nathan Adrian of Bremerton anchored the relay. Rupp, the silver medalist in London, hung with a small pack of frontrunners throughout the 6.2-mile race, but couldn’t match their final kicks and placed 5th. No country is even close to that sum.
The honour of reaching the milestone was shared by Kathleen Baker, Lilly King, Dana Vollmer and Simone Manuel, who got to the wall first ahead of Australia.
View the full medal count after Saturday’s events.
On the track, Jamaica maintained its stranglehold on the women’s 100-meter title, but this time it was Elaine Thompson taking gold in 10.71, while her teammate Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, the victor in 2008 and 2012, had to settle for bronze. Gabby Douglas will also take the stage for the uneven bars final.
Women take to the track for the 400 semifinals starting at 8:35 p.m. Shaunae Miller, of the Bahamas, has the fastest time in the event this year. Storm sensations Breanna Stewart and Sue Bird highlight as the Americans take on China in the preliminary round.
Beyond that, Ledecky pointed to a USA trials format that sets up the team to perform well at the Olympics.
At 12:15 p.m., the US women play the Chinese. American Justin Gatlin won his heat in 10.01 seconds and will compete against Bolt in Sunday’s final.
Monica Puig won Puerto Rico’s first gold medal in any sport in Olympic history, upsetting Angelique Kerber in the women’s tennis singles final.
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.
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Murphy, who completed a backstroke sweep with victory in the 100 and 200 events as well as the medley relay, added he felt breaking Aaron Peirsol’s world record in the leadoff of Phelps’ final race was especially poignant.
