Phelps adds one more to his kitty

Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom extended Saturday’s record spree in winning the 100 meters butterfly, and Peaty and Ledecky followed suit in the next two finals before the U.S. men’s team, with Phelps swimming second, took the 4x100 freestyle relay. 

Six swimming world records have now fallen in two days of competition, and the United States moved level with Australia on two gold medals each. Phelps now has 19 golds, two silvers and two bronzes. For his relay team mates Caeleb Dressel and Ryan Held, it was their first Olympic medal.

London Olympics 100 freestyle champion Nathan Adrian swam the final leg for the Americans, touching first ahead of France and Australia. 

“On the block I thought my heart was going to explode, I was so hyped, so excited,” said Phelps, competing in his fifth Olympics. Britain’s Peaty set his second world record in consecutive days, and seemed surprised by the margin of his victory — 1.56 seconds — over defending champion Cameron van der Burgh of South Africa.

I touched the wall and looked around and thought ‘where is everybody?’ Peaty said. 

The last British man to win an Olympic gold was Adrian Moorhouse in the same event in 1988, six years before Peaty was born. On a big night for the British team, Jazz Carlin won a silver medal behind Ledecky.