Phelps helps US team win gold in likely last Olympic swim
RIO DE JANEIRO — Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian in history, has earned his 23rd career gold with a US win in the 4×100 medley relay.
Also on the team was Las Vegas resident and Palo Verde High School product Cody Miller. He swam the breaststroke leg of the relay, in what might have been the last Olympic race of Michael Phelps’ storied career.
Miller, who won bronze in the 100-meter breaststroke earlier in Rio, helped the U.S. set an Olympic record with a time of 3:27.95.
WOMAN’S SWIMMING RELAY TEAM WINS GOLD
The U.S. women’s 4×100-meter medley relay team won gold — and reached a milestone for the United States.
Kathleen Baker, Lilly King, Dana Vollmer and Simone Manuel teaming up to prevail at the Rio Games on Saturday night is being recognized by the U.S. Olympic Committee as the nation’s 1,000th gold medal in Summer Olympics history.
Manuel swam the last leg, and when she hit the wall her three teammates hugged on the pool deck. Their winning time was 3 minutes, 53.13 seconds.
The U.S. is the first nation to win 1,000 summer golds, the first of those coming in 1896. No other nation comes close — the Soviet Union stopped at 473 golds, and no other country is on pace to reach the milestone until 2100.
The USOC is planning to recognize the 1,000th gold in the coming days, though exact plans on that front remain unclear.
THOMPSON BEATS FAVORITE TO WIN 100 METER
All eyes were on double defending champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce. But it was her fellow-Jamaican Elaine Thompson who ran away with gold in the 100 meters.
Though Fraser-Pryce may have been first out of the blocks Saturday, Thompson powered through for the title in 10.71 seconds. American Tori Bowie lunged at the line for 10.83 and beat Fraser-Pryce by 0.03 seconds.
European champion Dafne Schippers had a bad start and finished fifth with 10.90.
Fraser-Pryce was seeking to become the first women in track to win three Olympic gold medals in a row.
ITALIAN WINS POOL SWIMMING’S MOST GRUELING RACE
Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri has taken gold in pool swimming’s most grueling race, winning the 1,500-meter freestyle at the Rio Olympics.
Paltrinieri pulled away from the field and was under world-record pace much of the race before fading a bit at the end. Still, he won comfortably Saturday night, touching in 14 minutes, 34.57 seconds.
Connor Jaeger of the United States took the silver in 14:39.48, while the bronze went to another Italian, Gabriele Detti, in 14:40.86.
Detti rallied over the final laps to pass American Jordan Wilimovksy, who settled for fourth.
Wilimovksy will get another shot at a medal in an even more demanding event — the 10-kilometer open water race at Fort Copacabana on Tuesday.
ETHIOPIAN SETS WORLD RECORD
One world record, one Olympic gold. That done, Almaz Ayana can start thinking about her best event.
Ayana of Ethiopia delivered a stunning start to track and field at the Olympics on Friday with a world record in the 10,000 meters, wiping away the competition just after the halfway point and striding away to win with effortless grace.
After crossing the finish line, she raised her hands in triumph and then stopped, coming to realize what she had done in only her second 10,000 at an important meet: Her time of 29 minutes, 17.45, had shaved 14.33 seconds off the 1993 mark of China’s Wang Junxia.
“It was not my plan,” Ayana said. Once she got going, no plan was going to stop her.
At age 24, she beat the best from a previous generation. Kenya’s Vivian Cheruiyot, 32, a four-time long- distance world champion placed a distant second, 15.18 seconds behind. Ayana’s 31-year-old teammate, Tirunesh Dibaba, took bronze.
It was a bittersweet moment for Dibaba, who had been trying to become the first woman to win an individual event for three Olympics in a row. She barely stood a chance once Ayana got going, but worked to get another medal for Ethiopia.
Still, she said, “I now have a bronze for my son,” dedicating the medal to one-year-old Natan.
Dibaba and Ayana held hands afterward — a symbolic transition to a new era.
“Running with Dibaba gave me the energy,” she said.
HE FELL BUT WENT ON TO WIN
Not even a tumble could stop Mo Farah from defending his Olympic 10,000-meter title in a dramatic final where he worked his way back through the field, then lost and regained the lead on the last lap.
Just like he did four years ago in London, the Somali-born Farah draped the British flag over his shoulders for his victory lap.
The Olympic and world champion in the 5,000 and 10,000 tripped and fell to the track after tangling with another runner with 15 laps to go.
He worked his way back up to third with 11 laps to go and was first going into the bell lap, but Paul Tanui of Kenya made a charge with 300 to go and led until Farah surged again and sprinted away to win in 27 minutes, 5.17 seconds. Tanui held on for silver in 27:05.64 and Tamirat Tola of Ethiopia took bronze.
MANUEL GETS SILVER
Pernille Blume of Denmark held off Simone Manuel to capture gold in the 50-meter freestyle at the Rio Olympics.
After posting the top time in both the preliminaries and the semifinals, Blume came through again in the final Saturday on the final night of swimming. She touched in 24.07 seconds.
Manuel, the American co-gold medalist in the 100 free, settled for silver in 24.09. Aliaksandra Herasimenia of Belarus earned the bronze in 24.11.
It was another huge disappointment for sisters Cate and Bronte Campbell of Australia.
They were shut out of an individual medal again, with Cate finishing fifth and Bronte seventh.
US WINS MEN’S LONG JUMP
Jeff Henderson of the United States overtook Luvo Manyonga of South Africa on his last jump to win the Olympic long jump gold medal.
Manyonga took the lead on his penultimate jump with a mark of 8.37 meters and during a tense sixth and final round, Henderson bettered it by 1 centimeter.
Defending champion Greg Rutherford of Britain took bronze on Saturday.