Mireia Belmonte Garcia became the first swimmer from Spain to win a swimming gold medal at the Olympic Games, capturing the 200 meter butterfly title at Rio 2016.
Groves establishes early lead, Belmonte Garcia finishes strong
The early pace-setter was Aussie Madeline Groves. Groves came into the final with the best qualifying time and her first 50 meters saw her lead Belmonte Garcia and China's Zhang Yufei by just about a second.
Groves contnued to lead going into the 100 meter mark, but Belmonte Garcia had made up a signficant amount of time, cutting Groves' lead to 0.46 seconds. Natsumi Hoshi of Japan had now emerged as the third contender for the gold and she was closing in on Groves and Belmonte Garcia as the final 100 meters loomed.
Belmonte Garcia outlasts Groves, Hoshi to win historic gold medal
With all three in lanes next to each other, it was hard to tell who would emerge as the gold medalist since they were now practically even heading to the 150 meter mark. Belmonte Garcia is known for having outstanding closing speed and she took the lead with 175 meters now in the books. With Groves and Hoshi right behind her, the three headed for the home stretch with the gold up for grabs.
Groves was still right on the Spaniard's tail, but she held off the Australian to win the gold after taking silver in the 2012 Olympics in London. Belmonte Garcia's winning time was 2:04.85, the fastest time in the 200 fly this year. Groves took the silver in 2:04.88, an agonizing three-hunderedths of a second from glory. Hoshi wound up with the bronze in a time of 2:05.20.
When asked what she was thinking about after the race, the Spaniard responded: "I'm still nervous. Nothing comes to mind," before adding: "The truth is it's everything I dreamed of and it's all happened so quickly".