RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Michael Phelps has to clear out more space in his medal case.
Time to make room for gold No. 19.
With yet another dazzling performance, the most decorated athlete in Olympic history added to his staggering haul Sunday night in the 4x100-meter freestyle relay, giving the United States a lead it never relinquished.
Defending Olympic champion France was leading when Phelps dove into the water on the second leg, taking over for leadoff swimmer Caeleb Dressel. Even though the 100 free isn’t one of his specialties — he’s never swam it at the Olympics — he blazed down and back in a stunning 47.12 seconds, a time that was faster than all but the three anchors on the medal-winning teams, three of the best in the world at that distance.
Ryan Held protected the lead before giving way for Nathan Adrian, America’s best sprinter.
At that point, it wasn’t really in doubt.
But Phelps wasn’t taking any chances, pounding the starting block and shouting toward Adrian as the anchor made the turn for home.
When Adrian touched the wall first, posting a winning time of 3 minutes, 9.92 seconds, Phelps thrust his right arm in the air and looked toward his infant son Boomer, nuzzling in the arms of his mother Nicole Johnson, the roaring crowd blocked out by noise-canceling headphones.
Little Boomer won’t remember what his daddy did this night.
But that gold medal will never let him forget.
France took the silver in 3:10.53, while Australia claimed the bronze in 3:11.37, holding off a Russian team that was booed during the introductions — a reminder of the drug scandal that has rocked the nation. Vladimir Morozov, initially banned from the Olympics, was one of Russia’s relay swimmers.
uROUGH DAY FOR BRAZIL IN SOCCER: Brazil’s dream of winning a soccer gold medal is quickly turning into a nightmare.
Brazil drew its second consecutive game at the Olympic tournament Sunday, being held by Iraq to a 0-0 draw and hearing more loud jeers from the home fans.
The result in Brasilia leaves Brazil tied for second place in Group A, in need of a victory in the final game, against Denmark on Wednesday in Salvador, to advance to the next round and avoid another embarrassing elimination at home two years after the 7-1 loss to Germany at the World Cup.
Neymar, the tournament’s biggest star, played below expectations for the second straight game, and young strikers Gabigol and Gabriel Jesus also struggled.
Upset fans chanted “Marta, Marta,” in reference to the five-time world player of the year who has been thriving with the women’s national team.
uPEATY SIMS TO WORLD RECORD: Another day, another world record for Britain’s Adam Peaty at the Rio Olympics.
Peaty took gold in the men’s 100-meter breaststroke Sunday night with a time of 57.13 seconds, shattering the mark of 57.55 he set one day earlier in the preliminaries.
Peaty cruisied away from Cameron va der Burgh of South Africa, the defending Olympic champion who took silver this time in 58.69.
The bronze went to Cody Miller of the United States, whose time of 58.87 held off teammate Kevin Cordes.
The crowd at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium went into frenzy at the sight of two Brazilians in the final. But Joao Gomes finished fifth and Felipe Franca was seventh.
uMURRAY BROTHERS EXIT IN TENNIS: Andy Murray and his older brother Jamie exited in the first round of doubles at the Rio de Janeiro Games, making them 1-3 as a team at the Olympics.
The second-seeded British pair lost to Brazilians Thomaz Bellucci and Andre Sa 7-6 (6), 7-6 (14) in front of a loud partisan crowd Sunday night, hours after Andy won his opening singles match as the defending champion in that event.
The Murrays had their chances to extend the 2-hour match, holding five set points in the second tiebreaker, but failed to convert any.
The unseeded Brazilian duo needed seven match points to close the deal.
The Murray brothers also lost in the first round of the 2012 London Olympics, and in the second round four years earlier in Beijing.
uSJOSTROM SEIMS TO WORLD MARK: Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden has broken her own world record in the women’s 100-meter butterfly to take gold at the Rio Olympics.
Sjostrom led right from the start and touched in 55.48 seconds, breaking the mark of 55.64 she set at last year’s world championships. She sat on the edge of the deck, pumping her arms in the air, and then appeared to be overcome by tears as she climbed to her feet.
This was her first Olympic medal, after she finished fourth in the 100 fly at the London Games four years ago, missing out on the bronze by just 23-hundredths of a second.
uBEACH VOLEYBALL PLAYERS ATTIRE: The Egyptian women’s beach volleyball team of Nada Meawad and Doaa Elghobashy took the court for their match against Germany on Sunday night wearing long sleeves and long pants.
Elghobashy also had her head covered by a hijab.
It was a stark contrast to the usual beach volleyball uniform — bikinis for women and boardshorts for men. Although the International Volleyball Federation used to have standards regulating the size of uniforms, those were loosened heading into the London Olympics to allow full sleeves and pants.
FIVB spokesman Richard Baker said Sunday night that the move was made to open up the game culturally.
By one measure, it’s worked. Baker said there were 169 different countries involved in the Continental Cup qualifying process for the 2016 Olympic, compared to 143 for London.
