2016 RIO OLYMPICS: USA WINS 1000TH GOLD, PHELPS GRABS 23RD GOLD MEDAL
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 14 Aug 2016
The United States reached a historic milestone by winning the 1,000th Summer Olympics gold medal on Saturday night at the Aquatics Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The 4?100m medley relay team of Kathleen Baker, Lilly King, Dana Vollmer and Simone Manuel won America?s first gold of the final night of swimming competition for the momentous achievement.
?One thousand gold medals is a remarkable achievement made possible by the culture of sport that is the fabric and foundation of Team USA,? said U.S. Olympic Committee CEO Scott Blackmun.
Team USA had the historical count of 997 gold medals going into Saturday?s competition.
Then the women?s eight rowing won gold Saturday morning, followed by long jumper Jeff Henderson winning the gold on his final jump in dramatic fashion.
Those wins allowed the U.S. swimmers to reach the milestone.
Track and field has contributed 323 of the USA?s golds, while swimming has 246 since the first modern Games began.
The women?s medley relay win was the United States? 23rd gold in Rio. It was immediately followed by gold in the men?s 4x100 medley relay, which was Michael Phelps? farewell race.
The United States never missed to grab the gold in the men?s 4x100 medley relay except during the American boycotted 1980 Moscow Games.
Backstroker Ryan Murphy and breaststroker Cody Miller dived the pool ahead of Phelps, who seized the lead for freestyle anchor Nathan Adrian for the win.
They won with an Olympic record time of 3 minutes 27.95 seconds, to give Phelps his 23rd gold medal and his 28th overall. If Phelps were a country, he would be in 38th place with South Africa in the medal standings.
After 63 races covering five Olympics and swimming a total of 11,800 meters, Phelps retired. He joined the Rio Games as the most decorated Olympian of all time, with 22 medals, including 18 golds and has added 5 golds and a silver.
His other golds were in the 4?100m and 4?200m freestyle relays, the 200m butterfly and in the 200m individual medley, where he became the third American Olympian after the track and field athletes Al Oerter and Carl Lewis to win the same event in four Olympics.
?You just have no idea how difficult it is for anybody to win an Olympic gold medal,? said Phelps?s longtime coach, Bob Bowman. ?I know Michael?s done it so frequently; it?s really hard to put it."
Phelps announced his retirement after the 2012 London Games but continued training in 2013. This time his retirement is for real said Bowman.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.
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