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Insane stat highlights historical dominance of Michael Phelps
Posted On Aug 23 2016
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Phelps picked up his 23rd Olympic gold medal, helping the United States’ 4×100 metre medley relay team to victory in the final swimming race of Rio 2016 – USA’s fourth win in the event in as many Games.
But having starred in Brazil, where he won five gold medals to take his career Olympic tally to 23, Phelps once again declared himself done with competitive swimming.
Phelps swam the butterfly third leg of a tight race, pushing the USA from second behind Great Britain up to first before freestyle specialist Nathan Adrian saw it home for gold in an Olympic record time of three minutes 27.95 seconds.
Great Britain on 30 medals (10 Gold, 13 Silver, 7 Bronze), followed by Germany on 16 medals (8 Gold, 5 Silver, 3 Bronze) rounded up the third and fourth spot respectively. The only countries with more gold medals are: the USA (24), China (13), and Great Britain (10). The 4×100m medley relay team of Kathleen Baker, Lilly King, Dana Vollmer and Simone Manuel won Americas first gold of the final night of swimming competition for the momentous achievement. But two years later, he returned to the pool.
Phelps swam the butterfly leg of the 4x100m medley relay on Saturday.
“Between now and London, I was so much more emotional during these Games, I think that showed at times on camera”, he said. “I know Michaels done it so frequently; its really hard to put it”. “I’m in the best place possible with everything that’s going on in my life”.
Michael Phelps celebrates after competing in his last race.
What an incredible race to watch, but Phelps announced after that it would be his last.
“When I made a decision to come back I wanted to do it the right way”. I’ve had so many people say to me, ‘You blink an eye, it’s over.’ They grow up so fast.
“Being able to have our first child witness my last Olympics ever, my last ever, I mean, it’s just dream come true after dream come true”, he said.
NBC Olympics coverage has topped 2 billion total streaming minutes via NBCOlympics.com & NBC Sports app.
Pernille Blume, who swam Denmark’s anchor leg, earlier won gold in the women’s 50m free, inflicting more heartbreak on Australia’s Cate Campbell after her 100m flop.
