Roughly 400 reporters, photographers and cameramen from around the world have been waiting patiently for the greatest Olympian in history to appear.
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Denmark’s Pernille Blume beat a field of world and Olympic champions to take gold in the women’s 50m freestyle and Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri won the men’s 1,500m freestyle after dominating nearly from the start. It was the 23rd, and for now last, of his career. Phelps put the US ahead on the butterfly leg and they held on to capture his 23rd gold medal.
When he finally enters the media room, Phelps looks exhausted, but there’s enough life left in him to think big.
“We each had American flags and they printed out each of the events, and the people that were competing in each of those events came forward, had a little moment together, took the flag and stuck it through the paper and into the grass in the Olympic village”, she said. You might not have seen that before. “I’ll be there watching, cheering everybody on, but I will not be in the pool competing”. I think I’ve shown that. I changed a diaper last night. “This is it. I said it before, but you guys can say, this is the last time”.
“Done, done, done – and this time I mean it”, he told Matt in a live interview Monday.
For Manuel, it was her second medal of the night – she also won silver in the 50 free – and second gold of the games.
While the spotlight was on the 31-year-old, who retired after the 2012 London Games before returning for one last hurrah, the United States of America women’s 4x100m medley relayers captured their country’s 1,000th Olympic medal.
The “23” is a special number because it’s the playing number that belongs to his sporting hero, National Basketball Association superstar Michael Jordan. He was still talking about about it at 1.16am.
Phelps couldn’t have asked for a more storybook ending. He watched as Phelps fought through youthful scandals including his first drink-driving charge at 19 and a tabloid ruckus over a picture of Phelps with a marijuana pipe in 2009. “It made me feel bad”. What’s up with that?’ “The rehab is what opened him up”. “What do we do now?”
Clearly exhausted, he shared every victory with the raucous crowd and was especially emotional whenever he caught sight of fiancée Nicole and infant son Boomer in the stands.
Two days ago, Simone Manuel made history as the first African-American woman to win a gold medal in an individual swimming event.
“I’ve said this to some of you, it’s not done growing”, he told reporters when he qualified for Rio.
“Not only to see his impact in the pool, but just here out of the pool as well”. “My emotions really started surfacing”. Instead, they began draining it Saturday and planned to transfer almost 1 million gallons of clear water from a nearby practice pool in time for the start of synchronized swimming. “Yeah, I’ve done a lot, but it’s not done”.
“This is what I wanted to finish my career”.
Phelps dove into the pool in second place. It just feels good to know that the hard work did pay off and I was able to fight through some of the times that I went through the last two years and get back to where I actually wanted to be.
Murphy broke the world record for the 100 backstroke in the leadoff, clocking 51.85 seconds to eclipse the 51.94 that compatriot Aaron Peirsol swam in 2009.
He punched the water and bellowed as Phelps swam over to congratulate him. He dove into the water behind Great Britain and managed to take over the British swimmer to give team America the lead, and ultimately the victory. And with his level of success, the 31-year-old has earned himself an early retirement.
Not his training partner clipping his heel in the Olympic final Saturday in Rio de Janeiro.
“Absolutely not”, the coach laughed.
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“Absolutely not. I’m not even looking. He’s too special, right?” “To do something that nobody else has ever done”. “And it turned out pretty cool”.
