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USA continues its gold medal swimming haul

Michael Phelps settles for silver
Posted at 9:39 PM, Aug 12, 2016
and last updated 2016-08-12 22:59:31-04

Team USA continued its golden ways in the pool at the Rio Olympics, adding three golds a silver and a bronze Friday night. The only surprise is who snagged the silver.

Maya DiRado of the United Statesdenied Katinka Hosszu's bid to become a four-time gold medalist at the Rio Olympics.

Hosszu got off to a blistering start and led almost the entire race. But DiRado rallied furiously on the final lap and got Hosszu at the touch to win in 2 minutes, 5.99 seconds.

Hosszu settles for silver in 2:06.05, while Canada's Hilary Caldwell took the bronze in 2:07.54.

  • SPECIAL SECTION: Summer Olympics Coverage
  • DiRado couldn't believe what she had done in her one and only Olympics. She put her hands on her cap in disbelief when she saw he name on top of the scoreboard.

    Katie Ledecky delivered another dominating performance at the Rio Games, handily breaking the world record in the 800 freestyle.

    Ledecky joined Debbie Meyer as the only women to sweep the three longer freestyle events at the same Olympics. Meyer took the 200, 400 and 800 at the 1968 Mexico Games, and Ledecky matched that performance with a couple of world records as well.

    Ledecky was merely racing the clock as she powered away from the field to touch in 8 minutes, 4.79 seconds, eclipsing the mark 8:06.68 that she set at a grand prix meet in Texas back in January.

    Then she waited for the rest of the field to finish.

    Jazz Karlin finally touched in 8:16.17 to claim the silver, just ahead of Hungary's Boglarka Kapas grabbing the bronze in 8:16.37.

    SWIMMING VIDEO

    Some 23 seconds after Ledecky touched the wall, the last of the eight finalists finally got to the end of the grueling race.


    But there was a stunner in the pool -- Michael Phelps was beaten.

    Joseph Schooling of Singapore built a big lead on the opening lap and easily held off the hard-charging Phelps to win gold in the 100-meter butterfly. So, unless Phelps decides to come out of retirement again, his final individual race at the Olympics will go down as a silver. He still has a chance to win his 23rd gold medal in his final race of the Olympics, the 4x100 medley relay.

    Phelps was sixth at the turn and Schooling — almost exactly a decade younger than the 31-year-old American — wouldn't let him pull off one of his patented comebacks on the return lap. The winning time was 50.39 seconds.

    Phelps shared the silver with two other longtime rivals, Chad le Clos of South Africa and Laszlo Cseh of Hungary. They all touched in 51.14.

    Sixteen years after winning his first individual gold medal at the Olympics, Anthony Ervin picked up his second with a furious dash from one end of the pool to the other.

    Completing a remarkable journey in the blink of an eye, the oldest member of the U.S. swimming team touched first in the 50-meter freestyle, edging the defending Olympic champion, Florent Manaudou of France, by a mere hundredth of a second.

    Another American, Nathan Adrian, took the bronze.

    The 35-year-old Ervin won his first gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, tying teammate Gary Hall Jr. for the top spot. Then, Ervin walked away from swimming, skipping the next two Olympics while he embarked on a journey to find his purpose in life.

    Turns out, it was swimming all along. He returned to make the American team in 2012, but failed to win a medal in London. Now, improbably, he's back on the top of the podium again.