The United States Olympic Swim team finished week one of the Rio Olympic Games with one dominating performance after another. USA Swimming brought home 33 medals total, 16 of them gold. These are some are USA Swimming's gold medal moments:
Lilly King: Women's 100m Breastroke
Anthony Ervin: Men's 50m Freestyle
Sixteen years later, and now 35 years old, Anthony Ervin closed the book on his Olympic career with a gold medal in the Men's 50 meter Freestyle. Ervin became the oldest male individual swimming champion, beating silver medalist Florent Manadou by just a hundredth of a second. Ervin first won gold in the 50 Free back in Sydney in 2000, tying with fellow American Gary Hall Jr.
Simone Manuel: Women's 100m Freestyle
Simone Manuel even surprised herself when she looked up at the scoreboard to see her name at the top after the women's 100 M freestyle. Manuel tied for first with Canada's Penny Oleksiak, setting a new Olympic record with a blazingly fast time of 57.20 seconds. Manuel is the first African-American woman to win a gold medal in swimming, and the first American woman to win gold in the event since Nancy Hogshead and Carrie Steinseifer tied in 1984.
Ryan Murphy: Men's 100 and 200m Backstroke
American backstrokers continue to dominate on the word stage, with Cal swimmer Ryan Murphy winning both the 100m and 200m Backstroke in Rio. Murphy is the sixth consecutive American to win gold in the 200 M backstroke. When asked about joining this elite group, Murphy told reporters he received letters from those past gold medalists before The Games, and their words gave him the confidence to perform in Rio.
Maya DiRado: 200m Backstroke
In a huge upset, Team USA's Maya DiRado out-touched Hungary's Katinka Hosszu in the women's 200 M backstroke. In Rio, Hosszu won three golds in the 100 M backstroke and both 200 and 400 M Individual Medleys. She was projected to win the 200 M backstroke event as well. With an incredible and powerful finish, DiRado decided to skip her last stroke to dive for the wall and was able to beat Hosszu by less than one tenth of a second.
Katie Ledecky: Women's 200, 400 and 800m Freestyle
Katie Ledecky doesn't understand what "2nd place" is. She came on to the stage at fifteen in the 2012 Olympics and took home a gold medal. Now,the world's fastest distance swimmer worked tirelessly over the past four years to improve her speed in shorter events, leading to a additional gold medal in 200 meter freestyle in Rio. Ledecky shattered her previous world records in both the 400 meter and 800 meter. She crushed her competition in the 800 meter Freestyle race- touching the wall a little over eleven seconds before the silver medal contenders did.
Michael Phelps: Men's 200m Butterfly and 200m Individual Medley
All-time great Michael Phelps earned his 22nd gold medal in Rio, making his triumphant return to the top of the podium the 200 M Butterfly and 200 M Individual Medley. With his fiancee and now first child, Boomer, watching from the stands, Phelps continued his reign as the most dominant Olympic athlete in history. There's a reason why people refer to him as the Greatest of All Time; his twenty three gold medals prove it.
Men and Women's Swimming Relays
The United States' men's and women's relay teams went on to win all but one relay in Rio (Australia finished first in the women's 4x100 freestyle relay.) The relay teams had plenty of star power, with Michael Phelps and Katie Ledecky lending their talents to five of the six events. The men swept the relay events, once again proving the United States dominance in the swimming world.
