Led by superstar Michael Phelps, the U.S. swimmers contributed three out of the five gold medals pocketed by the US. You have now viewed your allowance of free articles.
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Gold went to Singapore’s Joseph Schooling Friday night.
And that will be his final event, Phelps insisted. He’ll soon be marrying his fiancee, Nicole Johnson. “I never thought I would be in this position but I’m so blessed and honored on the medal stand”, said Manuel.
This being Phelps, he had to do something out of the ordinary, even in defeat.
Their tie also included Laszlo Cseh of Hungary – meaning that this race has three silver medalists.
They clasped hands and stepped up together. They all touched in 51.14 – a half-body length behind Schooling’s winning time of 50.39.
“It hasn’t really sunk in yet”, Schooling said.
To a thunderous crowd, Phelps stormed to the gold medal in the men’s 200m individual medley and became the first swimmer to win the same event at four consecutive Olympics.
“That’s pretty insane, what happens in eight years”, said Schooling, who attends the University of Texas. Talking with him, he’s one of the rookies I’m very close with.
For Phelps, this was the first event of these games in which he’s failed to win a gold medal.
Katie Ledecky set a new world record Friday in the women’s 800-meter freestyle.
At the Lagoa Stadium, Germany snatched two golds from the men’s and women’s quadruple sculls in the rowing regatta.
DiRado beat out another star of these games – Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu – at the wall after taking the lead in the closing lengths. She’s looking to complete a sweep of the 200, 400 and 800 freestyles for the first time since the 1968 Mexico City Games. Ledecky now holds the 13 fastest times at a distance she owns like few swimmers have ever before.
Ledecky was merely racing the clock as she powered away from the field to touch in 8 minutes, 4.79 seconds, eclipsing the mark 8:06.68 that she set at a grand prix meet in Texas back in January.
Then, Ledecky played the waiting game, hanging on the rope for a while to let the rest of the field finish.
Britain’s Jazmin Carlin captured silver and Hungary’s Boglarka Kapas took bronze.
Ledecky was barely breathing hard. I can say that’s definitely how Chase is right now. Sundahage once coached Solo when the Swede was in charge of the US national team. Another American, Nathan Adrian, took the bronze. “You never know the feeling until it hits you”, said Biles, who became the first reigning world champion in the women’s individual all-around to claim the Olympic title in the same event since 1996, when Lilia Podkopayeva from Ukraine triumphed.
Turns out, it was swimming all along.
“The best team did not win today”, she said. Now, improbably, he’s back on the top of the podium again.
The United States women’s soccer team was eliminated by Sweden in the quarterfinals, a startling loss for the four-time Olympic champions that left Hope Solo without a shot at gold but with plenty of bitterness.
She’s already got a job lined up in Atlanta after the Olympics and made it clear she would be retiring no matter the results.
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Said Sweden coach Pia Sundhage, who once coached Solo when she was in charge of the US national team: “It’s OK to be a coward if you win”. I was nearly in tears.
