It was another gold medal for the United States at the Olympic Aquatic Center as they won the 4x200 meter freestyle relay to retain their title at the Rio Olympics. Conor Dwyer, Townley Haas, Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps won by over three seconds, leaving the rest of the field in the dust.
The win capped off a stellar night for the Americans, who saw Katie Ledecky win her third gold of the games in the 200 meter freestyle and Phelps reclaim his 200 meter butterfly title, his 20th gold of his Olympic career.
Early pace set by Australia, several teams close behind
The Australians have had a banner games in the pool after miserably failing in London in 2012 and they were off quickly, led by Thomas Fraser-Holmes. Right behind him was 400 IM champion Kosuke Hagino while Dwyer lurked not far behind. Fraser-Holmes was the leader after the first 100, but Dwyer was now in second, passing Hagino and eyeing the lead. The Aussies were still ahead after 150 meters, but Dwyer was about to change that and when he touched the wall to send Haas into the pool, the Americans were off and running. Great Britain were in the mix, but Dwyer badly outswam Stephen Milne in the opening leg.
Aussies begin to fade as Americans grow stronger
Haas was able to extend the US' lead as the Aussies began to run out of steam. Japan was still a factor and the Brits began to surge, led by Duncan Scott, but they were still almost two seconds behind. Halfway through his leg, Haas grew the lead to the point where the result was nearing inevitable. Japan held strong in second while Australia lagged behind in third. Scott was unable to make a significant and Haas brought the US halfway to another gold, swimming a brilliant 1:44.14 in his leg, one of the top five splits in relay history as Australia and Japan were still a full two seconds behind.
Lochte, Phelps cruise through their legs to bring title home for the Americans once again
Lochte's workload is much less than it was in London and his preliminaries swims were encouraging. He carried that form into this race, extending the lead over Japan by another half second while Australia continued to lose ground, now three seconds behind. Great Britain was gaining ground and they had a shot at medalling now. As Phelps was getting ready to swim the acnhor leg, his swim cap broke and hee needed to borrow one from Dwyer before Lochte finished up his leg. Once that situation was sorted, Phelps found himself less than two seconds ahead of the Japanese after an outstanding swim by Yuki Kobori while Dan Wallace had positioned the Brits into bronze medal position. Despite another terrific leg by the Brits, this one from James Guy, Phelps was never threatened and he easily touched the wall first for his 21st Olympic gold medal, the Americans continuuing to assert their dominance in this event.
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