The United States of America closed the Rio Olympics swimming competition with a final dominating flourish on Saturday, sweeping the medley relay events and sending Michael Phelps out on a triumphant note.
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Double gold medalist Ryan Murphy led off on backstroke, followed by Cody Miller on breaststroke, Phelps on butterfly and Nathan Adrian swimming the freestyle leg. Now Britain places third with 10 golds just behind the USA and China, who just claimed one silver and three bronze medals in the day.
In the previous race, Simone Manuel anchored the United States women’s 4x100m medley team to the 1,000th gold medal in her country’s Olympic history. The U.S.A. men’s swimming team wins another gold medal.
This is Phelps’ 23 Olympic gold, and 28th overall medals. Murphy broke U.S.A.’s previous Olympic record, which gave him his third gold medal at Rio 2016.
No other Olympian has more than nine gold medals.
The U.S. team of Kathleen Baker, Lilly King, Dana Vollmer and Simone Manuel made a tentative start before gradually taking command, finishing ahead of Australia (3:55.00) and Denmark (3:55.01) to claim the 1,000th Summer Games gold medal in their country’s history. But two years later, he returned to the pool.
0 – The number of medals Phelps won in his first Olympics in Sydney in 2000.
The U.S. women’s saber team won a bronze medal Saturday with a 45-30 victory over Italy, thereby atoning for some disappointing finishes in the individual event.
The comeback endured a huge setback with his second drunken-driving arrest in 2014, which led to Phelps being banned from the world championships a year ago. “If this is the end that was a great way to cap off an incredible career”.
“This is over. This is it”, Phelps said in a Facebook Live event Saturday.
Paltrinieri threatened the world record set by China’s Sun Yang in winning Olympic gold in 2012.
One of the greatest Olympians of all time, USA swimmer Michael Phelps, drew a large TV crowd for his final race.
“I’ve always been 100 percent loyal”, she said.
Baltimore’s own Michael Phelps has dominated the sport of swimming and the Olympic games for the past 12 years. “Last warm-up, last time putting on a suit, last time walking out in front of thousands of people representing my country”. It’s something that I wanted for so long.
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The legacy of Phelps is far from over and could even grow from here, as if one thing is for certain it’s that he will continue to be involved in the Olympic setup in some capacity for years to come.
