Michael Phelps has wrapped up a legendary Olympic career by claiming his fifth gold medal of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and 23rd overall as part of the USA’s winning men’s 4x100m medley relay team.
The USA team set a new Olympic Record with a time of 3:27.95, beating out the second-placed Great Britain team by more than a second. Australia claimed the bronze medal in the event, less than two seconds behind the USA.
It was a day of mixed results for Australia in the pool – while the Aussies added two more medals to their tally, neither was a gold, and so it wraps up something of a disappointing swimming campaign for Australia at Rio 2016.
The day began with the women’s 50m freestlye where it was hoped we’d see Cate and Bronte Campbell bounce back after their disappointing results earlier in the week.
It was not to be however. Cate finished fifth in what was a very tight race, just .08 seconds behind gold medallist Pernille Blume of Denmark. Bronte finished seventh.
However, the sisters did get to finish their Rio campaigns on something of a high as Australia claimed silver in the women’s 4x100m medley relay, finishing just under two seconds behind the USA team.
Mack Horton competed in the men’s 1500m freestyle but was more than fifteen seconds off the pace of Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri, who took out the gold with a time of 14:34.57. Horton finished in fifth.
That leaves Australia with a total of three gold medals coming from the swimming at Rio, two of the claimed on the first day of the meet, along with four silvers and three bronze.
Women’s 50m freestyle
Gold – Pernille Blume – Denmark – 24.07s
Silver – Simone Manuel – USA – 24.09s
Bronze – Aliaksandra Herasimenia – Belarus – 24.11s
Men’s 1500m freestyle
Gold – Gregorio Paltrinieri – Italy – 14:34.57
Silver – Connor Jaeger – United States – 14:39.48
Bronze – Gabriele Detti – Italy – 14:40.8
Women’s 4x100m medley relay
Gold – USA – 3:53.13
Silver – Australia – 3:55.00
Bronze – Denmark – 3:55.01
Men’s 4x100m medley relay
Gold – USA – 3:27.95
Silver – Great Britain – 3:29.24
Bronze – Australia – 3:29.93
Casper
Guest
I like your post. I always have some sympathy for these athletes when they don't deliver, as I appreciate that they are doing their best. However, in the real world we are judged on what we deliver. What really annoyed me was the comments from Rob Woodhouse after Cate failed in the 100m free, He said "I've got no worries about Cate in the 50m free as she has such pure speed". I thought, has this guy not learnt anything about what just happened.
SM
Guest
Oh look, the football hating dweebs have come out of the woodwork.
Brendon
Guest
At least Cate Campbell admitted she choked. Thing is its her third Olympics and the only individual medal she has ever won is a bronze in the 50m freestyle in 2008 as a 16 year old. By her third Olympics Liesel Jones had finally won an individual gold. Says a lot that Cate Campbell is a bigger choker than Liesel "I forgot to breathe" Jones. If you've ever spend time around the swimming scene and swimmers you'll know what a sheltered workshop/bubble world it is. These swimmers come from their soft, cozy middle class backgrounds training in anonymity secluded from reality and then they're shoved onto the world stage at the Olympics and don't have the life experience or skills to handle it. Interestingly enough Kyle Chalmers seems to have a different background and handled things well. He did an absolutely monster swim in the freestyle leg of the 4x100m medley. The kid got better as the meet went on. Even Mack Horton disappointed in the 1500m. While he was unlikely to get a medal his final time was slower than his heat time and 10 seconds than his trials time. He should have finished 4th. Maybe if didnt spend so much time and energy bitching about Sun Yang he might have done better. He sooked about the 4x200m taking too much out of him. Oh, have a whinge. What about Phelps and his schedule? Yet again the soft, whinging underbelly of Australian swimming is exposed. The signs were there as far as back as 2000 and 2004 and steadily got worse in 2008, 2012 and culminating in the disaster of 2016, which in many ways is more disappointing than 2012 where we had less medal chances and were rebuilding. I said at the time the Bluestone review was a waste of time and would achieve nothing. Swimming is NOT a team sport. Even relays barely qualify as a team sport. Nonsense things like "toxic culture" and social media were used as a scapegoat in 2012. Whats the scapegoat in 2016 going to be? Swimming needs to follow Cate Campbell's example and admit they have a choking problem. The first step in dealing with a problem is admitting it.
Casper
Guest
At least we actually won 3 golds, and 10 medals all up. All the World Cup bid did was show what an embarrassment soccer is to this country.
jamesb
Guest
Three gold at $40 million? Looks like it's similar to Australia's world cup bid where it received 1 vote for $45 million.
Dingo
Guest
Looking forward to the excuses this time round, sleeping pills? Partying? Social media? overhyped and over funded.
paulywalnuts
Guest
The Olympics for our swimmers is what the sub-continent is to our cricketers.
SM
Guest
Australia have won three gold medals in the pool, in what is allegedly our strength. Meanwhile, the American have won 16 golds out of a possible 33. Great stuff guys, 40 million well spent. Any danger of diverting future funds to actual decent sports? There are many at these games a lot more worthy.