Phelps put the United States ahead to stay on the butterfly leg of the 4x100 medley relay and Nathan Adrian of Bremerton finished it off, giving Phelps, the most decorated athlete in Olympic history, his 23rd career gold medal.
RIO DE JANEIRO — Michael Phelps closed out the Rio Olympics in the only way imaginable.
Golden.
Phelps put the United States ahead to stay on the butterfly leg of the 4×100-meter medley relay and Bremerton’s Nathan Adrian finished it off, giving the most decorated athlete in Olympic history his 23rd career gold medal Saturday night.
If that was the end, and Phelps, 31, insists it is, what a way to go.
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He has 28 medals overall, having won five golds and a silver at these Games.
“This is how I wanted to finish my career,” Phelps said. “Getting off the bus walking into the pool tonight, I pretty much felt myself starting to cry. Last time putting on a suit, last time walking out in front of thousands of people representing my country.”
As Adrian touched the wall to finish off the victory, Phelps gathered the other relay swimmers, Ryan Murphy and Cody Miller, in his arms. One night after finishing second in the 100 fly, Phelps was back on top.
In the stands, his fiancee, Nicole Johnson, bounced along to the music with their son, 3-month-old Boomer, cradled in her arms.
Phelps is eager to spend a lot more time with them. He plans to marry Johnson after the Olympics and said he wants to watch his son grow, maybe even dole out a swimming lesson or two.
Most of the U.S. swim team was in the stands to watch Phelps’ finale, including the biggest female star of the Games, Katie Ledecky.
Phelps initially retired after the 2012 London Olympics, only to decide about a year later to return to the pool.
The comeback endured a huge setback with his second drunken-driving arrest in 2014, which led to Phelps being banned from the world championships the following year. But it also sparked a turnaround in his life. He entered six weeks of inpatient therapy, where he got in touch with some of the issues that seemed to lead him astray outside the pool.
He quit drinking, reconnected with his estranged father, got engaged, moved to Arizona with his longtime coach Bob Bowman, and became a father.
Two-time gold medalist Murphy put the Americans out front with a world-record split on the backstroke — it counts since he was leading off — but Britain surged ahead on the breaststroke with its own world-record holder, Adam Peaty.
Phelps dove into the pool in second place.
He wouldn’t be for long.
On the return lap, Phelps powered through the water with his whirling butterfly stroke, surging ahead of James Guy to pass off a lead to the anchor Adrian.
It wasn’t in doubt after that. Adrian pulled away on the freestyle to win in an Olympic-record time of 3 minutes, 27.95 seconds.
Minutes earlier, the women’s medley relay gave the United States its 1,000th Olympic gold medal at the Summer Games.
“A thousandth gold for team USA,” said Simone Manuel, who swam the anchor leg for her second gold of the Games and second medal of the night after gettign a silver in the 50 freestyle. “It’s a nice number.”
Kathleen Baker, Lilly King and Dana Vollmer joined Manuel in the historic victory, which came with a time of 3:53.13.
“It’s really special,” Manuel said. “Sharing that with three other women is just icing on the cake.”
| All-time Summer Olympics medal winners | ||||
| Through Saturday’s competition. | ||||
| Athlete, country, sport | G | S | B | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Michael Phelps, USA, swimming | 23 | 3 | 2 | 28 |
| Larisa Latynina, USSR, gymnastics | 9 | 5 | 4 | 18 |
| Nikolai Andrianov, USSR, gymnastics | 7 | 5 | 3 | 15 |
| Boris Shakhlin, USSR, gymnastics | 7 | 4 | 2 | 13 |
| Takashi Ono, Japan, gymnastics | 5 | 4 | 4 | 13 |
| Edoardo Mangiarotti, Italy, fencing | 6 | 5 | 2 | 13 |
| Source: AP | ||||