USA swimming continued its dominance at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro on Day 7.
Here are the highlights from the night in the pool.
Women’s 200M Backstroke Final
Maya DiRado prevented Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu from winning her fourth individual gold medal of the 2016 Games by taking home her first individual gold medal of the week. DiRado finished in 2:05.99, edging Hosszu (2:06.05) by mere hundredths of a second. This is DiRado’s first and last Olympics — she’s retiring at the conclusion of the Games, and this was her final race. She finishes her career as a gold medalists and with four medals overall. What a way to go out.
Men’s 100M Butterfly Final
Michael Phelps was denied his 23rd gold medal, but finished in a three-way tie (51.47 seconds) for the silver, his 27th career Olympic medal. Singapore’s Joseph Schooling set an Olympic record for the gold at 50.39.
Women’s 800M Freestyle Final
Katie Ledecky put forth arguably the best swimming performance we’ve ever seen. She already owned the 12 fastest times in the world for the event entering the race, but she shattered her previous record and won the race by almost eight seconds.
Here’s an idea of what that race looked like:
Here were the top times:
Katie Ledecky, USA, 8:04.79
Jazmin Carlin, Great Britain, 8:16.17
Boglarka Kapas, Hungary, 8:16.37
USA’s Leah Smith finished sixth at 8:20.95.
Men’s 50M Freestyle Final
USA’s Anthony Ervin just set a record of his own, becoming the oldest male swimmer to win an individual medal in Olympic history. He took home the gold in just 21.40 seconds. He previously won the event 16 years ago at the 2000 Olympics at 19 years old. What a story.
Fellow countryman Nathan Adrian won the bronze at 21.49 seconds, while France’s Florent Manaudou took the silver at 21.41 seconds.
Thumbnail photo via Robert Hanashiro/USA TODAY Sports Images
