The United States continued its dominance of the 4x100-meters medley relay, winning the gold in both the men’s and women’s event on a day that saw them add four total swimming medals to their already gaudy total. They now have 33 swimming medals in Rio, ahead of runner-up Australia with 10, and 16 of those US medals are gold.
2016 Olympic swimming results: US adds four medals, including gold in both medley relays
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This was the 15th edition of the 4x100-meters medley relay at the Olympics, and the American men won their 14th gold in the event -- the only time they didn’t win was 1980, when the US boycotted the games. Ryan Murphy, Cody Miller, Michael Phelps and Nathan Adrian competed in the final in Rio and put up a time of 3:27.95, which set an Olympic record in the event and came within two-thirds of a second of the world record. On an individual level, Murphy’s time of 51.85 seconds in the backstroke portion also bested a world record for the 100m backstroke, while Phelps earned his 23rd career Olympic gold. The silver went to Great Britain and the Bronze to Australia, who finished within one second of each other.
For the women, this was their 10th gold in the relay and their second in a row after winning four years ago in London. The victory also gave the United States its 1,000th gold medal all-time at the Summer Games, making it the first country to do so. The group of Kathleen Baker, Lilly King, Dana Vollmer and Simone Manuel posted a time of 3:53.13, nearly two seconds ahead of the runners-up. Australia edged out Denmark for silver by just one one-hundredth of a second, with China finishing just 0.17 seconds too late to make the podium.
The United States didn’t win gold in the other two swimming events on Saturday, but they did at least medal. The women competed in the 50-meter freestyle, and Pernille Blume of Denmark took the gold with a time of 24.07 seconds. That put her just two hundredths of a second ahead of American sensation Simone Manuel, who settled for silver two days after winning the 100-meter freestyle and becoming the first African-American woman to win an Olympic gold in the pool. Blume’s medal was the first of her Olympic career, though she soon added a bronze in the medley relay, and Manuel’s is the United States’ first in the event since 2008. Aliaksandra Herasimenia of Belarus earned the bronze, another two hundredths of a second behind Manuel.
The other event on Saturday was the men’s 1500-meter freestyle, and the gold went to first-time medalist Gregorio Paltrinieri of Italy with a time of 14:34.57. The 21-year-old won the 2015 World Championships in the event, and now he’s backed that up with Olympic hardware after finishing fifth in the event in London four years ago. Meanwhile, Connor Jaeger grabbed another medal for the US, coming in five seconds behind Paltrinieri for the silver and setting a national record at 14:39.48. It’s the first time since 2004 that the US medaled in the 1500-meter event. Another Italian, Gabriele Detti, earned the bronze, while world record holder Sun Yang of China sat out after falling far short in the qualifying heat.
The only remaining swimming event in the Rio Games is the 10-kilometer open water, which will be held on Monday for the women and Tuesday for the men.
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