RIO DE JANEIRO: Michael Phelps brought down the curtain on his glittering Olympic career when he helped the USA win 4x100m medley relay gold at the Rio Games on Saturday, taking his personal tally to 23.
Phelps took the lead in the third leg, the butterfly, before Nathan Adrian brought it home as the United States won ahead of Britain and Australia.
Phelps and his teammates took the deck to a thunderous ovation and Ryan Murphy got the Americans off to a blazing start, clocking a world record 51.85sec on the opening backstroke leg.
“I was just super excited to be on that relay and I’m sure that little extra bit of adrenaline is what pushed me to that record,” said Murphy, who broke the record of 51.94 set by American Aaron Peirsol in 2009.
“That’s something that I’ve been gunning for a long time and to do it in the most watched race, Michael’s last race is something special,” Murphy said.
But Adam Peaty, who twice broke the 100m breaststroke world record en route to gold in Rio, got past American Cody Miller on the second leg, pulling Great Britain from sixth to first.
{{/usCountry}}But Adam Peaty, who twice broke the 100m breaststroke world record en route to gold in Rio, got past American Cody Miller on the second leg, pulling Great Britain from sixth to first.
{{/usCountry}}That meant Phelps hit the water for the third butterfly leg with work to do, and the superstar, swimming his fifth and final Olympics, didn’t disappoint.
He overhauled Britain’s James Guy to send Adrian into the final freestyle leg with a lead he wouldn’t relinquish.
THERE WILL NEVER BE ANOTHER PHELPS: COACH
Michael Phelps is said to have surpassed the deeds of Leonidas of Rhodes at the ancient Olympics and the American’s coach believes we will never see his likes again.
“Absolutely not, I’m not even looking,” Bob Bowman said after Saturday’s final swimming races which left Phelps with 23 Olympic gold medals.
“He’s too special. It’s not even once in a generation -- it may be once in 10 generations that someone like Michael comes along.
“He just had so many things going for him: he had the physical skills, the mental outlook, the family that supported swimming. He has an emotional ability to get up for big races and actually perform better under pressure.”