Phelps wins 19th Olympic gold medal

Michael Phelps (2nd, R) from the United States of America waves to the audience during the awarding ceremony for the men's 4x100m freestyle relay at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro

Aug. 8, 2016

RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Michael Phelps netted his 19th Olympic gold medal on Sunday as the USA won the 4x100m freestyle relay final at the Rio Olympics.

Phelps, Caeleb Dressel, Ryan Held and Nathan Adrian finished in 3 minutes 9.92 seconds, ahead of second-placed France by 0.61sec. Australia took bronze, 1.45sec behind the USA.

Held was the only member of the USA team that also competed in the heats and semifinals.

Phelps, who is the most successful Olympian in history, swam the second leg in 47.12sec. His reaction time of 0.08sec was the quickest of the race.

France's team comprised Mehdy Metella, Fabien Gilot, Florent Manaudou and Jeremy Stravius while Australia were represented by James Roberts, Kyle Chalmers, James Magnussen and Cameron McEvoy.

Phelps' only individual events in Rio will be the 100m and 200m butterfly, and the 200m individual medley.

The 31-year-old is aiming to become only the third athlete to win gold in the same event at four consecutive Olympics, joining Al Oerter (discuss) and Carl Lewis (long jump). He could perform the feat in both the 100m butterfly and 200m individual medley.