Connor Jaeger gave the US another silver in the 1,500 free, leaving the American with 33 swimming medals in Rio – matching the highest total since they captured 34 against a depleted field at the boycotted Los Angeles Games of 1984. He avenged his 200-meter butterfly defeat against South Africa’s Chad Le Clos with a closing 50 meters that left everyone else merely splashing about.
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“The goal was 8:05 or better so I hit all my goals right on the nose this week”, said Ledecky, who improved the previous record of 8:06.68 she set in January.
It was yet another extraordinary swim for Phelps, 31, who has now won two individual and two relay golds at his fifth Olympics, two years after coming out of retirement.
“He’s usually like a machine on those”, Bowman said, invoking a word often used in connection with Phelps.
The 2012 London Olympics were a record-setting performance for the U.S. team, as Missy Franklin led a team of four superb swimmers to the gold medal.
– Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) August 14, 2016Is it really the last time we’ll see @MichaelPhelps in an olympic pool?
Shortly after that swim, he raced again to qualify for Friday night’s final of the 100m butterfly, in which he is also bidding for his fourth consecutive gold, and told reporters later: “My body is in pain”. “I actually got to meet his family on my way down”.
Phelps, he added, is “a guy that will go down in our history books as the greatest of all time of any sport”. Valent Sinkovic won Olympic rowing gold with his brother Martin and he expects their father’s celebrations to last a while. Anthony Ervin capped a remarkable personal journey with a gold in the 50 freestyle – 16 years after he won his first individual gold in the same event at the Sydney Games.
Also on Day 8 of the games, Usain Bolt thrilled the crowd at Olympic Stadium in his first appearance of the games and Rafael Nadal’s bid for an unprecedented second Olympic singles gold medal ended with a thrill-a-minute semifinal loss to Juan Martin del Potro.
DiRado beat out another star of these games – Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu – at the wall after taking the lead in the closing lengths.
China’s world record holder and defending champion Sun Yang failed to qualify for the 1500m final.
While Ledecky, at 19, is the youngest member of the USA team, Ervin is the oldest at 35.
But incredibly, his gold in the pool on Thursday actually saw the American tie an Olympic record which dates all the way back to 152 BC. Efimova took silver and American Katie Meili took bronze.
Considering all the jaw-dropping moments he’s manufactured this week and how he’s two races away from an all-gold, six-medal haul at these Games, it makes sense to at least wonder.
Oleksiak is the first athlete born after January 1 2000 to claim an Olympic gold medal in an individual event.
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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Earlier, US teammate Maya Dirado earned her first gold of the Rio Games, after claiming a silver and bronze earlier in the week, as she pipped Katinka Hosszu in the women’s 200m backstroke. “I hope it shows that people from the smallest countries in the world can do extraordinary things”. I believe that. It doesn’t matter where you’re from really. “I’ve received a lot of support and that’s phenomenal”.
