Winners! Team USA put together a solid team effortin the Men’s 4×100 Freestyle Relay at the Rio games, and Michael Phelps’ Rio debut resulted in a gold for the US! Keep reading for all the details on this wild race.
Brazil had the lead after the first turn, but Team USA’s Caeleb Dressel wasn’t far behind. When Michael Phelps jumped in the water, France had pulled ahead to the top spot, but Michael managed to give the United States the push they needed to take the lead — and then his teammates Ryan Held and Nathan Adrian pushed as hard as they could to keep that No. 1 spot. The relay came down to the final seconds, but Team USA held on to take the gold back from France!
“We wanted to bring this relay back to American soil,” Michael said in a post-race interview. He was part of the US men’s relay swimming team at the 2012 London Games, when France won the gold in a nail-biting finish. To make the win even more exciting, France happened to be the team who took the silver at the 2016 Rio Games…talk about sweet revenge!
The 4×100 Freestyle is one of the fastest and most exciting swim races in the Olympics. The 2016 USA team featured veteran Olympic swimmers and gold medal winners from the London games. Michael, Nathan, Caeleb and Ryan were the swimmers who were given the honor, hoping to regain the hold on the gold medal . Let’s take a closer look at the amazing athletes that make up the American team:
Michael was announced late as a member of this team and has more medals than any other athlete to compete in the Olympics, ever. Michael had 22 medals already heading into Rio will have to make room at home for more. The veteran of the Olympics will make Rio his fifth trip to the games and he was bestowed with the honor of carrying the American flag in the opening ceremony.
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Ryan may just be the next superstar swimmer on this American team, as the 21-year-old was competing in his first Olympics but certainly didn’t make it seem so. He was put in an intense position as the swimmer between Michael and Nathan to keep their lead and did it with impressive ease!
Caeleb and Nathan round out the powerful American relay team. Adrian is key to this team and debuted in London when he helped the guys win gold. Caeleb is the youngest gun on the team. The young sprinter made his Olympic debut in Rio.
HollywoodLifers, what did you think of that epic relay race? Were you shocked with the outcome? What is your favorite part of the Olympics so far?
