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| Photos courtesy of USA Swimming |
Not just for the eight-day swimming competition at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium, but for the man who has become a household name because of his performance at these and the last four Olympic Games.
If he is to be believed – and he seems especially adamant about it this time around – Michael Phelps swam his last race Saturday in Rio, winning his 23rd Olympic gold medal in the 400m medley relay.
For the fourth straight Olympic Games, Phelps finishes with the most medals of any swimmer in the pool with six overall – five gold and one silver. Indeed, he will likely finish with more medals than any other individual athlete in Rio, just as he did in Athens (six gold, two bronze), Beijing (eight gold) and London (four gold, two silver).
In case you’ve lost count, that’s 28 Olympic medals over the course of his career, including 23 gold,
three silver and two bronze.
It all started 16 years ago in Sydney, with the wide-eyed, 15-year-old kid who qualified for the Olympic Team and placed fifth in the finals of the 200m butterfly. He was one of just a handful of swimmers on that team who did not come home with a medal.
“I think just walking into the pool tonight, everything just started coming out,” Phelps said. “My emotions really started surfacing. Walking down to the warm-up pool, I started getting choked up, just kind of thinking, ‘That’s it.’
“I was definitely a lot more emotional than I was in 2012. I think that’s a good thing. Being able to look back at my career, I can say we’ve been able to accomplish everything we wanted. It was a challenge getting back to this point, but this is the cherry on top of the cake that I wanted, and I couldn’t be happier with how things ended.”
Men's 400m Medley Relay
In a way, it’s fitting that Phelps won his last gold in the 400m
medley relay. It’s one of the three events he’s never lost on the
Olympic stage, along with the 200m IM and the 800m free relay.In fact, the men’s 400m medley relay is the only event the U.S. has never lost at any Olympic Games in which it has competed. Saturday was no exception.
Ryan Murphy, Cody Miller, Phelps and Nathan Adrian bested the rest of the field by more than a second, turning in a time of 3:27.95.
Murphy led it off with a world record in the men’s 100m backstroke in 51.85, breaking the former mark of 51.94 set by fellow American Aaron Peirsol in 2009.
“I just wanted to get us a big enough lead so the other guys didn’t really have to worry about racing,” Murphy said. “I’d be lying if I said being a part of that relay didn’t propel me to that world record. Being on a relay with Michael and Nathan, two guys I really look up to, that definitely gave me an adrenaline boost.”
From there, the U.S. weathered a blistering 56.59-second split by Adam Peaty of Great Britain, with Phelps retaking the lead in the butterfly leg and Adrian bringing it home.
In addition to Phelps, each member of the medley relay has won medals in multiple events this week. Murphy also won gold in the 100m and 200m backstroke; Miller won silver in the 100m breaststroke; and Adrian won gold in the 400m free relay, and bronze in the 50m free and 100m free.
“This meet has been incredible. If you told me coming in that I’d be coming out with three gold medals, and a world record, I’d tell you you were crazy,” Murphy said. “This is something I worked super hard for, so to see it come to fruition is truly incredible. It’s something I’ve been gunning for for a long time, and to do it in probably one of the most-watched races in history with it being Michael’s last race, it’s something I’m going to cherish forever.”
Women's 400m Medley Relay
The U.S. also took gold in the women’s 400m medley relay, with
Kathleen Baker, Lilly King, Dana Vollmer and Simone Manuel touching in
3:53.13 and leaving the rest of the field racing for second. That honor
went to Australia, who edged Denmark for silver by one-hundredth of a
second, 3:55.00 to 3:55.01.Like the men, each member of the women’s relay won at least one other medal earlier this week. Baker won silver in the 100m back; King won gold in the 100m breast; Vollmer won silver in the 400m free relay and bronze in the 100m fly; and Manuel won gold in the 100m free, and silver in the 50m free and the 400m free relay.
"I'm completely shocked that I get to come away from this meet with a gold and silver medal,” Baker said. “To be on the relay at night and experiencing that with all of my teammates, as well as getting to hear everyone cheer for me along the way is just the best feeling in the world right now."
The U.S. has won a medal in the women’s 400m medley relay in each of the Olympic Games in which it has competed. Tonight’s gold in this event marked the United States’ 1,000th Olympic medal in all sports since the advent of the modern Games in 1896.
“"That's just so incredibly amazing, and it really makes me think about all the generations of Olympic teams and athletes I've watched and inspiration I've had,” Vollmer said. “I remember watching my first Olympics in 1996 and seeing Kerri (Strug) in gymnastics and just understanding the dedication and the grit when she stood up to do that second vault.
“I just remember knowing that I wanted to do that, and to represent that, and we're here getting that 1000th medal for the U.S. It's just absolutely incredible."
Women's 50m Free
The women’s 400m medley relay was the second of two swims for Manuel Saturday.Two days on the heels of becoming the first female African-American swimmer to win Olympic gold, she found herself on the podium again with a silver medal in the 50m freestyle.
Manuel’s time of 24.09 was just two-hundredths of a second off the winner, Pernille Blume of Denmark, and just two-hundredths of a second off the American record set by Dara Torres at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Torres also won bronze in the 50 in Beijing, and was the last American to win an Olympic medal in this event.
"The 50 free is a work in progress for me,” Manuel said. “All my races are, but just coming off the 100, I was pretty confident that hopefully I could get a medal, and I was super ecstatic that I could get second place in a best time. I couldn't really ask for better.
“I didn't really get to relish the moment because I had to get to the relay, so I still haven't completely thought about the race, but I'm happy with getting back on the podium."
Men's 1500m Free
Connor Jaeger won the Americans’ fourth medal of the night, a silver
in the men’s 1500m freestyle. His time of 14:39.49 was an American
record.Jaeger has come quite a ways since his sixth-place finish in the 1500m free four years ago in London.
In 2014, he won his first international medal in that event, a gold, at the 2014 Pan Pacific Championships in Australia. Then at least year’s FINA World Championships, he won silver and set an American record in the 1500 with a time of 14:41.20.
On Saturday, he broke that record again, finishing between two Italians. Gergorio Paltirinieri took gold in 14:34.57, and Gabriele Detti finished with the bronze in 14:41.20.
It was the first time an American won an Olympic medal in this event since Larsen Jensen took silver in 2004.
It was Jaeger’s second event of these Games after finishing fifth in the 400m free on day 1.
"A pretty exciting way for me to end the meet,” Jaeger said. “I got to wait around for seven days until I could race again and basically watched Team USA swim out of their minds. I got a little anxious on the bench, so to be able to come back and add to that medal count really means a lot to me, because that’s why I’m here.
"You want to hold up your end. It's like being on the bench while your team is playing. It’s like, 'Coach, put me in.’ But you’ve got to wait seven days until he puts you in, so you get a little anxious. I knew that I had an opportunity to contribute to that (medal count) and help it be a record-breaking Olympics. So if the two relays got it done, then I had to do something. To add to that is awesome."
Jaeger’s teammate, Jordan Willimovsky, finished fourth in 14:45.03. While the pool competition ended tonight, Wilimovsky is just getting started. He will compete in the open water 10k marathon race on Tuesday. He is the first American swimmer to qualify for both the Olympic pool and open water competition.
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