No amount of cajoling, arm-twisting and pleading by his team mates and swimming fans around the world will make Michael Phelps change his mind about retiring after the Rio Olympics.
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With four gold medals at these games and 22 for his career, Phelps needs some help from his teammates to win another – he leads off with the butterfly leg of the 400 medley relay.
Phelps took the lead in the third leg, the butterfly, before Nathan Adrian maintained it during the last leg as the United States won ahead of Britain and Australia.
Is Simone Manuel the fastest female swimmer in the world?
The 19-year-old American says “I just wanted to lay it all out there”. Others still doubt that’s the case, but he and his coaches maintained that stance throughout.
“One thousand gold medals is a remarkable achievement made possible by the culture of sport that is the fabric and foundation of Team USA”, United States Olympic Committee (USOC) head Scott Blackmun said.
Four gold medals are waiting to be won Saturday as the smallest sculls (singles) and the largest (eights) take to the water.
Jaeger claimed silver in 14:39.48, while bronze went to another Italian, Gabriele Detti, in 14:40.86. All it would take would be a clean race and it was theirs.
Speaking of the picture Schooling has kept of him and Phelps, he commented, “That’s pretty insane, what happens in eight years”.
Farah tumbled in the 10th lap but he brilliantly recovered before storming to the stunning victory.
“I’m not going four more years and I’m standing by that”, he said. “I thought about all my hard work and that it could all be gone in a minute”.
Oksana Chusovitina of Uzbekistan, competing in her record seventh Olympics, will also try to reach the podium. “The games are in Rio for one time, and I want to be there”. Brazil won silver in London while Italy took bronze. The USA would like to have three in the final (English Gardner, Tori Bowie, Tianna Bartoletta) where they will face two-time defending champ Shelly-Ann Frayser-Pryce and Elaine Thompson of Jamaica and Dafne Schippers of Netherlands. Pernille Blume of Denmark held off Manuel to capture gold.
With team mate Anthony Ervin winning the 50 freestyle gold on Friday at the age of 35, 16 years after he first won it, there will always be those who wonder if the 31-year-old Phelps might do another tumble turn and turn up in Tokyo in 2020. The Americans haven’t been beaten since 2006, winning every world championships and Olympic title since then.
The Americans finished in 3min 27.95sec, an Olympic record, to win by 1.29sec. The winner will play in the Sunday finals against the victor of Spain’s Rafael Nadal and Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro, who knocked out No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the first round.
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Sprinter Tori Bowie almost took the US over the top in the 100 meters but she was finished second behind Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson, leaving it up to the swimmers to complete the feat.
