Phelps, who now has 28 Olympic medals in total, had earlier told fans in a Facebook Live chat that Saturday would be the last time he graced the Olympic pool.
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Phelps was beaten in his last Olympic individual race Friday night by a 21-year-old who grew up idolizing him.
Singapore has spent millions trying to win more medals at the Olympics, including offering a Foreign Sports Talent programme which grants promising foreign athletes citizenship, as well as a S$1 million ($743,494.42) prize for gold medals.
The United States won the men’s 4×100 metres medley relay on Saturday after Ryan Murphy had given them a world record start that propelled Michael Phelps to a 23rd gold medal in his final Olympic race.
He quit drinking, reconnected with his estranged father, got engaged, moved to Arizona along with Bowman, and became a father for the first time.
Then he and his teammates grabbed a sign that said, “Thank You Rio”.
On the return lap, Phelps powered through the water with his windmill of a stroke, surging ahead of James Guy to pass off a lead to anchor Adrian.
It wasn’t in doubt after that.
Again it was the United States on the top step of the podium, with Manuel anchoring the team as she secured a second gold medal of the week alongside Kathleen Baker, Lilly King and Dana Vollmer.
Blume won in 24.07 with Manuel adding silver to her surprise 100m gold with a time of 24.09 and Aliaksandra Herasimenia of Belarus, the London runner-up previously banned for doping, taking bronze.
Earlier, the U.S. team of Kathleen Baker, Lilly King, Dana Vollmer and Simone Manuel won the women’s 4x100m medley in a time of 3 minutes 53.13 seconds, 1.87 seconds ahead of Australia. “It’s a nice number”.
“It’s really special”, Manuel said.
While competitions wrap up in swimming and rowing, they’re just heating up in track and field, which will award five golds: for the women’s 100 meter sprint and the heptathlon, and the men’s 10,000 meters, discus and long jump.
Elaine Thompson won the women’s 100-meter title in 10.71 seconds, ending fellow Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce’s bid to win the event for a third straight Olympics.
Australia earned silver, while Denmark took bronze.
The US swimming team called the shots in the Rio Olympic pool as they pocketed 16 out of the 33 gold medals on offer.
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 the boycotted Los Angeles Games in 1984.
“A lot of this is because of Michael”, he said, clutching his new gold medal, the first ever won by an athlete from Singapore.
The final two individual golds of the games went to Pernille Blume of Denmark in the 50 freestyle, her country’s first swimming victory since 1948, and Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri in the grueling 1,500 free. “Last time walking out in front of thousands of people representing my country”.
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The only way imaginable.
