Rio Recap: Day Eight

Saturday marked the end of the swimming competitions in Rio, and the Americans went out with a bang with 33 total medals won during the week. The U.S. is still atop of the medal table, far ahead of both China and Great Britain. Here’s some of the highlights from Saturday:

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Star of the dayWomen’s Eight, USA, Rowing

The Women’s Eight boat won their third consecutive gold medal on Saturday.

Also shining brightly: Jeff Henderson, USA, Track and Field

Henderson won gold in the long jump by one centimeter.

Phelps’ finale: This time, Michael Phelps says he’s done. For real. No Tokyo 2020. (His teammates disagree.) He closed out his time in Rio with a gold medal in the 4×100 medley relay. Teammate Ryan Murphy, who already had two golds from the backstroke events, set a world record during the lead-off leg.

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Efimova bested once again: It was Lilly King vs. Yulia Efimova one more time in the pool, and the American women came out on top in the 4×100 medley relay. Anchored by 100m freestyle gold medalist Simone Manuel (who also picked up a silver in the 50m freestyle earlier that night), the Americans swam to an easy victory. Their win also marked the 1,000th Olympic gold medal won by Team USA.

Never ever give up: Gevvie Stone, a rower for Team USA, thought her rowing career was over before she decided to try to qualify for London in 2012. There, she placed seventh in single sculls. Yesterday, she brought home the silver.

Puerto Rican gold medal drought ends: Team Puerto Rico brought home its first-ever gold medal yesterday, from tennis player Monica Puig. Despite being a U.S. territory, Puerto Rico has a separate Olympic team than the United States.

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He got knocked down, but he got up again…and won gold: A tip of the cap to Team GB’s Mo Farah, who despite a fall in the 10,000m race managed to rebound and repeat as a gold medalist.

The pool has been drained: Good news for the synchronized swimmers: the pool that was formerly green has been drained, cleaned, and refilled, and is now a much more normal blue color.

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