Rio Olympics 2016 medal table: USA adds four golds

Michael Phelps of the United States thanks the crowd after winning gold in the Men’s 4 x 100m Medley Relay Final on Day 8 of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium on August 13, 2016.

Simone Manuel won a gold medal (the 1000th gold medal earned by Team USA) anchoring the 400 meter medley relay. Phelps put the US ahead on the butterfly leg and they held on to capture his 23rd gold medal. “This is it. I said it before, but you guys can say, this is the last time”.

“I’m not going four more years and I’m standing by that”, he said.

If this was indeed the end, then Phelps went out in style, with 28 medals overall, having won five golds and a silver in Rio de Janeiro.

Phelps said earlier Saturday on a Facebook live broadcast that the race is the last of his storied career. “That’s a big goal of mine”, Phelps said. “It might be once in 10 generations that someone like Michael Phelps comes along”.

“1,000 gold medals for the U.S. is a nice number”.

In the previous race, Simone Manuel anchored the USA women’s 4x100m medley team to the 1,000th gold medal in her country’s Olympic history.

“I thought the world would just be better off without me”, he said recalling the dark time. “This was the cherry on top of the cake and looking forward to starting a new chapter”. “It’s a nice number”.

Manuel set an Olympic and American record to tie for the gold medal in the 100-meter freestyle.

Pernille Blume, who quit swimming after being told she was too short, gave Denmark its first gold in the Olympic pool for 68 years Saturday with a surprise win in the 50m freestyle.

The quartet won gold in the next event in the pool, which was also the final race on the Rio swimming program. Connor Jaeger of the U.S. took the silver, and Paltinieri’s countryman Gabriele Detti increased Italy’s joy by taking bronze in a dramatic tussle at the finish with American Jordan Wilimovsky.

The victor, however, never seemed in doubt after world champion Paltrinieri took the lead at 150 meters and wore down the rest of the field to win by 4.91 seconds. “So I think that’s why I will still incorporate swimming in part of my weekly routine, just because it’s calming and soothing for me”, he said.

“There was a lot of pressure on my shoulders”.

“I can get in the water and be really, really upset and I can get out of the water and I can be a happy, outgoing person again”.