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Olympics / Team USA

Dana Vollmer part of huge night for U.S. Swimming

The United States swim team pulled some heavy weight yet again in the Olympics, hauling in quite a few medals, including another one for Syracuse’s Dana Vollmer, and more Olympic history for Katie Ledecky and Michael Phelps.

Vollmer was one of the earlier races in the night, when she took on the 100m butterfly final, the event that she is the reigning Olympic champion in. Despite a rough start and a less than encouraging placing after the first 50m, Vollmer turned on the jets in the last bit to earn a bronze medal. She ended up only .17 seconds away from a silver, but clearly outmatched by Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden, who won the gold while setting a new world record. Vollmer should be encouraged by the placing, returning to the Olympics after taking a year off to have a child. She could be in the medley relay, but if she isn’t, this will have been her last event.

The great performances didn’t stop there for American swimming. Katie Ledecky began her dominance but setting a new world record in the 400m freestyle, while teammate Leah Smith took bronze. Ledecky was more than four seconds ahead of the next closest competitor. That adds to the silver she earned with Vollmer in the 4×100 freestyle relay. She will likely add gold medals in the 200m and 800m freestyle later in the games, as well as in the 4X200m relay.

And later on in the evening, Michael Phelps continued his picture perfect Olympic career, when he won gold in the men’s 4X100 freestyle relay, where the Americans led the entire time, toppling rivals France and Australia. In a relay race that has been filled with drama in recent years, notably Jason Lezak’s unbelievable comeback in 2008 to give Phelps another gold, the United States had a fairly easy time. Caleb Dressel led off with the lead, but it wasn’t until Phelps went second, that the United States really grabbed a big lead. Ryan Held continued to hold the lead for anchor Nathan Adrian, who swam the fastest leg in the competition, bringing back gold to the Americans.

In the other final in the day, the United States’ Cody Miller edged teammate Kevin Cordes for bronze medal position in the 100m breaststroke. Cordes was a relative surprise, coming that close to medal competition, but Miller was ranked third in the world in the event coming in to Rio.

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Dan is a Staff Writer here at DoubleGSports.com with a focus on Team USA and the Rio Olympics
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