The United States, aided by a dominant second leg from Michael Phelps, earned the gold medal in the men's 4x100-meter freestyle relay, avenging their painful loss to France in 2012. Team USA, which consisted of Phelps, Caeleb Dressel, Ryan Held and Nathan Adrian, beat France by 0.61 seconds to take back the gold.
With the win, Phelps extends his records to 23 Olympic medals, 19 golds.
Adrian, who was the anchor for the U.S. relay team, earned his fourth Olympic gold medal. He, along with Phelps, were the two returnees from the 2012 relay team that finished with the silver. Dressel and Held each are first-time gold medalists, as both made their Olympic debuts in Rio.
The relay, with France considered the favorites as defending Olympic champions coming in, had multiple dramatic points early, but the U.S. left little doubt late.
After Dressel kept it extremely close on the first leg, the U.S. trailed France by .02 seconds. Phelps was next in the water and the U.S. still trailed France by 0.13 seconds after the first 50 meters of the second leg. That was when the most decorated athlete in Olympic history made his big move and opened up a lead of 1.03 seconds over Australia, which briefly overtook the French team.
The U.S. never trailed again as Held helped his team maintain a 0.47 second advantage over the French after the third leg. Adrian brought it home, holding off a late push by France to finish with an official time of 3:09:92. Australia finished with the bronze.
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