Jamaica's Usain Bolt greets fans as he celebrates winning gold in the men's 4 x 100-meter relay final, during the athletics competitions of the 2016 Summer Olympics at the Olympic stadium in Rio de Janeiro,... (Associated Press) 
 
 Jamaica's Usain Bolt greets fans as he celebrates winning gold in the men's 4 x 100-meter relay final, during the athletics competitions of the 2016 Summer Olympics at the Olympic stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Friday, Aug. 19, 2016. (AP Photo/David Goldman) (Associated Press) 
 
 RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Michael Phelps won more medals than anyone else, again. And then he said farewell, also again. 
 
 Usain Bolt kissed the finish line goodbye after enhancing his Olympic legacy. Simone Biles and Katie Ledecky delivered under the burden of enormous expectations. Two strangers went from rivals to forever-linked by a display of kindness, an entire island seemed to celebrate a tennis match, and a gold medalist scampered home to avoid legal issues after a robbery story unraveled. 
 
 And then the home team won soccer gold. 
 
 The Rio de Janeiro Olympics were not perfect. 
 
 But there were moments — some great, some dreadful and some downright ugly — that will not, and should not, be forgotten. 
 
 Here's a look: 
 
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 MEDAL LEADERS 
 
 The U.S. dominated the medal count, a rare romp in a non-boycotted games. There's still more medals to win Sunday, but the margin of overall victory could be the most in a fully attended games in 68 years. Phelps won six medals, five of them gold, to increase his career haul to 23 Olympic titles and 28 medals overall. Ledecky and Biles each won five medals; Biles will carry the U.S. flag into the closing ceremony. And U.S. shooter Kim Rhode has now won a medal in six consecutive Olympics — and she might not be done. 
 
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 BEST FINISH 
 
 Bolt kissing the finish line after his ninth and final Olympic gold — in nine final races — was a perfect ending. He ran the anchor leg of the 4x100-meter relay for Jamaica, won emphatically to become the third athlete ever with nine golds in track and field, and insists that this will be the end of his Olympic career. 
 
 "Nothing left to prove," Bolt said. 
 
 He's right. 
 
 "I am the greatest," he added. 
 
 Right again. 
 
 ___ 
 
 BEST ACT OF SPORTSMANSHIP 
 
 An easy pick. 
 
 In the women's 5,000-meter heat, Abbey D'Agostino of the U.S. and New Zealand's Nikki Hamblin — strangers before that day — were involved in a tumble. D'Agostino helped Hamblin up, encouraging her to finish the race. D'Agostino tore a knee ligament in the fall and obviously couldn't finish. Hamblin wound up finishing last of 17 in the 5,000 final, so neither left with a medal. 
 
 Instead, they got so much more. 
 
 "That girl is the Olympic spirit right there," Hamblin said of D'Agostino. "I've never met her before. Like I never met this girl before. And isn't that just so amazing?" 
 
 Yes, it is. 
 
 ___ 
 
 BIGGEST EMBARRASSMENT 
 
 Another easy pick, even in a games where an Egyptian was sent home after failing to shake an Israeli judo opponent's hand. 
 
 Ryan Lochte is a 12-time Olympic medalist, and the odds that he'll have a chance to ever swim for a 13th are as murky as some of the pools were in these Rio Games. Lochte's story that a robber put a gun to his head quickly unraveled, his three teammates who were companions that night all were left to answer legal questions after he scurried home, and more repercussions from the U.S. Olympic Committee are likely coming. 
 
 "It's traumatic to be out late with your friends in a foreign country — with a language barrier," read part of the apology that Lochte released on social media Friday. 
 
 Maybe so, but it bears noting that language barrier or no language barrier, the incident occurred after Lochte left a night out at ... Club France. So it would seem like not all foreign atmospheres struck him as traumatic before now. 
 
 ___ 
 
 BREAKOUT STAR 
 
 We asked. You voted. 
 
 Narrowing the list of potential candidates to four — Simone Manuel (four swimming medals), Joseph Schooling (beat Phelps for a gold in the pool), Monica Puig (whose tennis gold was Puerto Rico's first Olympic title in any sport) and Ibtihaj Muhammad (the barrier-breaking fencing medalist) — AP asked its Twitter followers to have a say in deciding this one. 
 
 The response was overwhelming, and one-sided: Puig is the breakout star of these games. 
 
 Reduced to tears many times after draping the Puerto Rican flag across her body after the gold-medal match, Puig beat two of the world's best five players to win the title. 
 
 "To do this ... is everything," Puig said. 
 
 The Olympic ideal, personified. 
 
 ___ 
 
 BEST COACH 
 
 Due respect to Mike Krzyzewski, Geno Auriemma, Martha Karolyi and the Japanese wrestling coach who found himself getting body-slammed twice in celebration by women's gold medalist Risako Kawai, this one goes to Ans Botha — the 74-year-old great-grandmother who guided South Africa's Wayde Van Niekerk to Olympic gold and a world record in the men's 400 sprint. 
 
 Her style is simple. When the smile goes away and the voice gets stern, it's time to get serious. Sort of like most great-grandmothers. 
 
 "She's an amazing woman," Van Niekerk said. "Her work ... I think it speaks for itself." 
 
 ___ 
 
 BEST COUPLE 
 
 Decathlon champion Ashton Eaton of the U.S. and his wife, heptathlon bronze medalist Brianne Thiesen-Eaton of Canada, would be a very easy selection here. 
 
 But what Kate Richardson-Walsh and Helen Richardson-Walsh did was even more rare. 
 
 They're married, and played for the same gold-medal winning British women's field hockey team. In a games that had more openly gay athletes than ever before, theirs was a moment that surely resonated with many around the world who don't know the first thing about field hockey. 
 
 "To win an Olympic medal is special. To win an Olympic medal with your wife standing next to you ... we will cherish this for the rest of our lives," Kate Richardson-Walsh said. 
 
 ___ 
 
 BEST BACK-AND-FORTH 
 
 When the U.S. women's soccer team was ousted by Sweden (and former U.S. coach Pia Sundhage), American goalkeeper Hope Solo raised eyebrows with her assessment of the match. 
 
 But her former coach had the perfect rebuttal. 
 
 "We lost to a bunch of cowards," Solo said. 
 
 "It's OK to be cowards if you win," Sundhage countered. 
 
 ___ 
 
 BIGGEST OFF-FIELD STAR 
 
 A tough category, especially after Leslie Jones of "Saturday Night Live" parlayed hilarious Twitter commentary into an invite to Rio. Matthew McConaughey hung out with everyone from the U.S. women's rugby team to Phelps, and Gisele Bundchen's catwalk in the opening ceremony was one not to forget. 
 
 But the pick here is Zac Efron, who flew to Rio just to surprise the U.S. women's gymnastics team — particularly Biles, who doesn't hide her enormous crush on the actor. 
 
 He also saw Bolt and the U.S. men's basketball team, but let's face it, no one is going to ignore invites to hang with Biles and the U.S. gymnasts right now. 
 
 ___ 
 
 BEST SPIN 
 
 No one might have been better at their job during the Olympics than Mario Andrada, the spokesman for the Rio Games organizing committee. 
 
 When something went wrong it was his job to explain it — and do so with the world watching and listening. He and International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams held daily hourlong briefings with reporters, and Andrada offered up some quote gems. So we'll go ahead and award his head-scratching statements their own set of medals. 
 
 The bronze: "Numbers mislead," he said, as part of an answer about ticket sales and poor crowds. 
 
 The silver: "Let's give these kids a break," he said of Lochte and his U.S. swimming teammates, after their incident. 
 
 The gold: "Chemistry is not an exact science," he said, talking about why the water at a diving pool went from blue to green. 
 
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 BEST BRAZILIAN MOMENT ... 
 
 Stand up and cheer, City of God. 
 
 One of your own is now an Olympic champion. 
 
 Slums, or favelas, are everywhere in Rio — none more infamous than the City of God, which rose to fame through the 2002 movie of the same name that depicted life in the slum. Rafaela Silva grew up there, and she won gold in judo at these Rio Games. 
 
 Now that's a made-for-Hollywood story. 
 
 ___ 
 
 ... THAT IS, UNTIL THIS HAPPENED 
 
 How's this for a storybook ending for Brazil? 
 
 Soccer gold — and in most dramatic style, too. 
 
 Brazil vs. Germany, men's soccer, gold-medal matchup. Neymar gives the hosts a 1-0 lead, but the Germans tie it and ultimately it goes to penalty kicks to decide the Olympic champion. 
 
 Germany makes its first four. 
 
 So does Brazil. 
 
 Then Germany is stopped on its fifth, and the stage is set for Neymar — who else? — to set off a national celebration. His shot sails into the back of the net, Brazil wins and the roar could be heard all over Rio as Neymar collapsed on the field in a quivering mass of joyous tears. 
 
 Forget all the problems these games had. Forget how many Brazilians opposed them in the first place. 
 
 They got their perfect finish to an imperfect Olympics. ||||| (CNN) They're the king and queen of Olympic track cycling -- and nobody at Rio 2016 had any way of dethroning them. 
 
 Jason Kenny and Laura Trott made it 10 Olympic gold medals between them Tuesday after a dramatic night of track cycling at the velodrome. 
 
 The British riders, who will get married next month, stole the show in contrasting style. 
 
 Trott took her golden tally to four as she defended her women's omnium title -- making her Britain's most successful female Olympian. 
 
 And Kenny then made history of his own -- equaling his former teammate Chris Hoy's all-time British record of six gold medals after winning a nerve-shredding keirin race, in which he was almost disqualified. 
 
 Fellow cyclist Bradley Wiggins had become Britain's most decorated Olympian when he collected his eighth medal after helping the men's pursuit team to victory last Friday -- five of that tally being gold. 
 
 At just 24 years of age, few would bet against Trott surpassing the trio. 
 
 She helped the British women's team win the pursuit at the weekend, adding to her two golds in London four years ago. 
 
 Trott has now won four Olympic gold medals. 
 
 "I am so proud at what I achieved," she told reporters. 
 
 "I cannot thank the people in the background enough. I always thought how special London (2012 Olympic Games) was. 
 
 Photos: Rio Olympics: Day 11 Photos: Rio Olympics: Day 11 Canada's Derek Drouin clears the bar on his way to winning gold in the high jump on Tuesday, August 16. Hide Caption 1 of 30 Photos: Rio Olympics: Day 11 Brazil's Robson Conceicao, left, boxes France's Sofiane Oumiha in the lightweight final. Conceicao won the bout to earn the host country its first-ever gold medal in boxing. Hide Caption 2 of 30 Photos: Rio Olympics: Day 11 Spain's Carolina Marin celebrates a victory in the badminton quarterfinals. Hide Caption 3 of 30 Photos: Rio Olympics: Day 11 Dutch field hockey player Bob de Voogd, right, is challenged by Belgium's Emmanuel Stockbroekx during a semifinal match. Belgium won 3-1 to advance to the final against Argentina. Hide Caption 4 of 30 Photos: Rio Olympics: Day 11 U.S. gymnast Sam Mikulak competes in the final of the horizontal bar. Hide Caption 5 of 30 Photos: Rio Olympics: Day 11 French synchronized swimmers Laura Auge and Margaux Chretien compete in the duets final. Hide Caption 6 of 30 Photos: Rio Olympics: Day 11 Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt wins a 200-meter heat. He won gold in the 100 meters earlier this week. Hide Caption 7 of 30 Photos: Rio Olympics: Day 11 Great Britain's Laura Trott and her fiance, Jason Kenny, pose with their gold medals in track cycling. Kenny won the keirin and Trott won the omnium. Hide Caption 8 of 30 Photos: Rio Olympics: Day 11 Armenian wrestler Artur Aleksanyan, in red, competes against Cuba's Yasmany Daniel Lugo Cabrera in a Greco-Roman final. Aleksanyan came out on top. Hide Caption 9 of 30 Photos: Rio Olympics: Day 11 A general view of the beach volleyball venue. Hide Caption 10 of 30 Photos: Rio Olympics: Day 11 U.S. gymnast Simone Biles competes in the floor exercise. She won the event, finishing this year's Games with her fourth gold and fifth medal overall. Biles is the first woman to win four gymnastics golds in a single Olympics since Romania's Ecaterina Szabo in 1984. Hide Caption 11 of 30 Photos: Rio Olympics: Day 11 U.S. swimmer Jordan Wilimovsky competes in the 10-kilometer open water event. Hide Caption 12 of 30 Photos: Rio Olympics: Day 11 Russian boxer Vladimir Nikitin celebrates after his bantamweight victory over Ireland's Michael Conlan. Hide Caption 13 of 30 Photos: Rio Olympics: Day 11 Bruna comforts her Brazilian teammate Marta after they lost to Sweden in the soccer semifinals. The match was decided on penalty kicks after a goalless draw. Hide Caption 14 of 30 Photos: Rio Olympics: Day 11 U.S. gymnast Danell Leyva competes on the horizontal bar, where he won silver. He also got silver on the parallel bars. Hide Caption 15 of 30 Photos: Rio Olympics: Day 11 Germany's Laura Ludwig reacts during a semifinal win in beach volleyball. Hide Caption 16 of 30 Photos: Rio Olympics: Day 11 Italy's Costanza Ferro and Linda Cerruti perform their technical routine during synchronized swimming. Hide Caption 17 of 30 Photos: Rio Olympics: Day 11 Volleyball teams from Japan and the United States wait for the start of their quarterfinal match. Hide Caption 18 of 30 Photos: Rio Olympics: Day 11 Brazilian diver Cesar Castro competes in the 3-meter springboard event. Hide Caption 19 of 30 Photos: Rio Olympics: Day 11 Cuba's Yaime Perez competes in the discus throw final. Hide Caption 20 of 30 Photos: Rio Olympics: Day 11 Italian golfer Giulia Molinaro tees off on the fifth hole during a practice round. Hide Caption 21 of 30 Photos: Rio Olympics: Day 11 Spain's Francisco Fernandez competes in a water polo quarterfinal match against Serbia. Hide Caption 22 of 30 Photos: Rio Olympics: Day 11 American Christian Taylor won gold in the triple jump. He also won the event in the 2012 London Games. Hide Caption 23 of 30 Photos: Rio Olympics: Day 11 Australian equestrian Scott Keach falls off his horse, Fedor, during the individual jumping competition. Hide Caption 24 of 30 Photos: Rio Olympics: Day 11 New Zealand's Nikki Hamblin, left, helps Abbey D'Agostino of the United States after they collided during the 5,000-meter semifinal. Both runners managed to finish the race. Hide Caption 25 of 30 Photos: Rio Olympics: Day 11 Chinese cyclist Tianshi Zhong competes in a sprint quarterfinal. Hide Caption 26 of 30 Photos: Rio Olympics: Day 11 New Zealand's Eliza McCartney takes part in pole vault qualifications. Hide Caption 27 of 30 Photos: Rio Olympics: Day 11 Swimmers prepare for the 10-kilometer open water event. Ferry Weertman of the Netherlands earned the gold. Hide Caption 28 of 30 Photos: Rio Olympics: Day 11 Track cyclists prepare to compete in the first round of the keirin. Hide Caption 29 of 30 Photos: Rio Olympics: Day 11 Canoeist Josef Dostal of the Czech Republic, left, celebrates with Spain's Marcus Walz after the K-1 1,000-meter final. Walz and Dostal took gold and silver while Russia's Roman Anoshkin earned the bronze. Hide Caption 30 of 30 
 
 "I went there without any expectations, so to win two golds was just incredible, and then I thought, 'How on earth am I going to top that?' We believed in ourselves, and in our team. It just started to snowball. 
 
 "I worked day-in, day-out with those girls, and the team pursuit is what I really targeted. To come back and win the omnium, it's just incredible. 
 
 "You realize how hard it is to do it all again. It was so hard to build myself up and come back again. We did a lot of work in the gym, and completely changed our program." 
 
 On Tuesday, Trott became the first woman to collect a fourth Olympic gold medal in track cycling, surpassing Felicia Ballanger of France on three. She led the two-day, six-event competition from start to finish, leaving the rest of the field to fight for silver and bronze. 
 
 Trott won by a commanding 24 points, while the gap between second-placed American Sarah Hammer and Belgium's Jolien D'Hoore in third was just seven points. 
 
 Kenny celebrates after winning the men's keirin final. 
 
 Kenny's victory was less clear-cut. The keirin race had to be stopped twice after riders were adjudged to have passed the derny pace bike before it had left the track. 
 
 The first time it was Kenny and Malaysia's Azizulhasni Awang, who had an agonizingly long wait before the judges ruled that all the cyclists could compete in the restart. 
 
 Then Germany's world champion Joachim Eilers over-rode the mark, and again the race was stopped. 
 
 When it did finally get going, Kenny timed his move to perfection, overtaking Dutchman Matthijs Buchli and Awang, who won silver and bronze respectively. 
 
 Arghhhh!!!!!! I love him to bits @JasonKenny107 !! Our kids have to get some of these genes right?! — Laura Trott (@LauraTrott31) August 16, 2016 
 
 Kenny added to his earlier men's sprint and team pursuit golds in Rio, having won twice at London 2012 and once at Beijing four years before that -- also getting silver in China. 
 
 "It just felt like a dream. I guess I'm tired. I was just floating through it," the 28-year-old said. "It's mental to be level with Chris. I was in Beijing when he won his three so to come here and do the same is pretty amazing." 
 
 Britain won two more medals in Tuesday's women's sprint event, with Becky James beaten by Germany's Kristina Vogel in the final and Katy Marchant winning the bronze race against Elis Ligtlee of the Netherlands. ||||| Michael Phelps, the most decorated athlete in Olympic history, will be participating in his his fifth Olympic Games, a United States record among male swimmers. 
 
 Up next for the 31-year-old Phelps will be three individual races — the 200-meter butterfly, 200-meter individual medley and 100-meter butterfly — and as many as three relays at the Summer Games in Rio. And considering he placed first in each discipline at the U.S. team trials in Omaha, it seems likely he’ll add to his incredible collection of 22 medals, a number that includes 18 golds. 
 
 A run like Phelps’ is almost inconceivable in a sport like swimming, where youth typically reigns supreme. But Phelps and his U.S. teammate Ryan Lochte, who turns 32 on Aug. 3, have repeatedly proven themselves to be outliers. 
 
 And should either win gold in a solo race in Brazil — Lochte will compete alongside Phelps in the 200-meter IM but did not qualify in the 400 IM — that swimmer will become the oldest to win individual Olympic gold, knocking Dutch swimmer Inge de Bruijn, who won the 50-meter freestyle three days before her 31st birthday at the 2004 Games in Athens, from the top spot. 
 
 As a result of Phelps’ prolonged dominance, there’s an entire generation of fans who can’t recall a time when he wasn’t in the pool at the Olympics. And there are others, yet, who aren’t even old enough to remember when Phelps got his start, more than half his life ago. So with that in mind, let’s look back on Phelps’ four previous Olympic appearances as he prepares for a record-setting fifth: 
 
 2000, Sydney 
 
 Phelps made his Olympic debut at the age of 15, making him the youngest U.S. male to swim in the Games since 1932. 
 
 At the time, Phelps still had braces on his bottom teeth and didn’t yet have his driver’s license, but he earned a spot in the 200-meter butterfly with a second-place finish at the Olympic trials in Indiana, pulling away from Jeff Somensatto during the final 50 meters to clinch a spot on the team. 
 
 “He doesn’t know what it means to go to the Olympics and how it’s going to change his life,” first-place finisher Tom Malchow, a 1996 silver medalist, said of Phelps after the race. “He’s going to find out soon.” 
 
 Once in Sydney, Phelps performed admirably, and any other year he’d have been worthy of a spot on the medal stand. 
 
 He won his first-round heat with a time of 1:57.30, then earned a spot in the final with a time of 1:57.00 in his semifinal heat. Phelps then cut a half-second off that time in the finals, finishing in a time of 1:56.50 that would have put him one hundredth of a second off the gold-medal pace at the 1996 Games in Atlanta and won him gold at any Olympics prior to that. 
 
 However, Phelps had to settle for fifth place, one-third of a second behind bronze medalist Justin Norris of Australia and more than a full second behind the gold medalist Malchow. 
 
 2004, Athens 
 
 If 2000 was Phelps’ first taste of the Olympics, then in 2004, he devoured the whole buffet. 
 
 By the time the 2004 Olympic trials in Long Beach rolled around, Phelps, then 19, had set world records in four different events. At the trials, Phelps competed in six events and, unsurprisingly, qualified in all of them. But with three relays also expected to be on his plate in Athens, Phelps dropped the 200-meter backstroke, putting him in eight total races at the Olympics. 
 
 What followed was one of the greatest performances in the history of Olympic swimming — one eventually bested by Phelps’ own showing in Beijing in 2008. 
 
 In his first event, the 400-meter IM, Phelps won his first career gold medal, putting him well on his way to tying (or breaking) Mark Spitz’s then-record of seven in a single games. He qualified for the final with a time of 4:13.29 in his first-round heat, then pasted the field with a blistering gold-medal time of 4:08.26 in the final, topping his own world record for the fourth time in the process. 
 
 But Phelps was only getting started. 
 
 Phelps’ next two events — the 200-meter freestyle and 4×100-meter freestyle relay — both ended with Phelps winning bronze, the former (a race alongside Ian Thorpe and Pieter van den Hoogenband dubbed “The Race of the Century”) coming in a time of 1:45.32 and the latter with a time of 3:14.62 that included a 48.74-second leg by Phelps. 
 
 Those disappointments ended Phelps’ hopes of passing Spitz in ‘04, but from that point on, however, it was all gold, starting with Phelps’ signature event, the 200-meter butterfly. Four years after coming up short in Sydney, Phelps set an Olympic record with a time of 1:54.04. 
 
 Then just 61 minutes later, Phelps won his first relay gold in the 4×200-meter freestyle, with Phelps posting a time of 1:46.49 in the lead leg, putting the U.S. in front when he handed the race off to Lochte. Then after Lochte and Peter Vanderkaay kept the U.S. in the lead, Klete Keller held off Australia’s Ian Thorpe on the anchor leg of the race. 
 
 From there, Phelps’ focus returned to the individual races, and in the 200-meter IM, Phelps topped Lochte, setting an Olympic record with a time of 1:57.14. Then the next day, Phelps beat another teammate, world record-holder Ian Crocker, in the 100-meter butterfly final, Phelps’ Olympic record time of 51.25 topping Crocker by four-hundredths of a second. 
 
 That gave Phelps five gold medals and two bronze for the Games, but Phelps, in a somewhat unusual move, put the fate of his sixth gold in Crocker’s hands, allowing Crocker to swim the butterfly leg in the 4×100-meter medley relay. The U.S. went on to break its own world record in the event and Phelps, by virtue of having competed in the team’s qualifying heat, received gold, as well. 
 
 2008, Beijing 
 
 It would be hard to forget Phelps’ historic 2008 effort, even if you tried. Because in addition to the 23-year-old Phelps winning eight gold medals, the most ever by an athlete in a single Olympics, he also set world records in seven of his races in the process. 
 
 Of course, after his run in Athens, there was no question Phelps was capable of what he pulled off in Beijing, but seeing him actually do it was stunning, nonetheless. 
 
 Competing in the same eight events he did in Greece, Phelps started by demolishing his own world record in the 400-meter IM, shaving more than a second and a half off his time from the Olympic trials and more than four and a half seconds off his gold medal time from 2004 with a 4:03.84 finish. 
 
 Phelps then set an American record in the lead leg of the 4×100-meter freestyle relay, and the team set a world record of 3:08.24 thanks to Jason Lezak’s anchor leg rally past Frenchman Alain Bernard. The win was redemptive for Phelps, part of the team that earned bronze in the event in 2004, and marked the only U.S. Olympic gold medal in the race since 1996. 
 
 Equally vindicating was Phelps’ win in his next race, the 200-meter freestyle. After a third-place finish in Athens, Phelps set a world record with a time of 1:42.96 in Beijing, touching the wall nearly two full seconds ahead of the silver medalist, South Korea’s Park Tae-hwan. At that point, Phelps was 3-for-3 with three world records and was the reigning gold medalist in his five remaining events. 
 
 In his next race, the 200-meter butterfly, Phelps overcame some technical difficulties — he spent most of the race swimming blind after his goggles filled with water — to set a world record at 1:52.03. That win gave him 10 gold medals overall, the most ever by a modern Olympian. Later that day he upped the count to 11 as part of the first 4×200-meter freestyle team to break the 7:00 mark. 
 
 Phelps’ sixth gold of the games then came in the 200-meter IM, as he finished more than two seconds ahead of the silver and bronze finishers with a world-record time of 1:54.23. But his seventh gold medal, in the 100-meter butterfly, didn’t come so easily. 
 
 Prior to the race, Milorad Cavic of Serbia remarked that he’d like to go down in history as “some guy” who kept Phelps from winning eight gold medals, and in the end, Cavic came as close as someone possibly could to doing it. In the one race in which Phelps didn’t set a world record (he still set an Olympic mark), Phelps finished in 50.58 seconds, one hundredth of a second ahead of Cavic. 
 
 In the aftermath, there were conspiracy theories abound regarding which swimmer deserved gold, and even today there’s still healthy debate regarding who actually touched the wall first. 
 
 In any case, Phelps moved on to the 4×100 medley — this time he actually swam in the final — and his team set yet another world record, breaking the 2004 U.S. mark by 1.34 seconds, with a time of 3:29.34. Phelps’ split in the butterfly portion of the event was 50.15 seconds and gave the Americans the lead going into the final leg. 
 
 2012, London 
 
 Heading into the most recent Games, Phelps needed three medals to become the most decorated Olympian ever. He went ahead and got six anyway, including four more golds. However, his quest for the record was briefly derailed early on. 
 
 Phelps’ latest Olympics, which were previously thought to be his last, included seven races, though he qualified for the same eight as he had during the previous two Games. He eventually decided to drop the 200-meter freestyle, and in his first final, the 400-meter IM, he placed fourth, leaving him off the medal stand for the first time since his 2000 debut. 
 
 It begged the question whether Phelps had enough left in him to make history, particularly considering that he barely qualified for the final in the first place, his 4:13.33 prelim time the slowest among the eight qualifiers. In the final, Phelps clocked in at a more respectable 4:09.28, but still touched more than four seconds behind the gold medalist, Lochte. 
 
 However, in his second race, Phelps won his 17th medal, doing so with a 47.15-second split during his leg of the United States’ silver medal-winning 4×100-meter freestyle relay. 
 
 Two nights later, Phelps, once again looked a stroke slow but took silver in the 200-meter butterfly, his 1:53.01 time nearly a full second behind his world record time from 2008 (a mark he’d already broken at the 2009 world championships in Rome). Then later that evening, his relay team won gold in the 4×200-meter freestyle. 
 
 Phelps’ elusive 19th medal broke a tie with Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina, who won 18 medals, including nine golds, in the 1950s and ’60s. 
 
 With the pressure, at that point, off — or at the least reduced — Phelps returned to the dominant form most had come to expect, winning gold in each of his last three races. The first, coming with a 1:54.27 time in the 200-meter IM, made Phelps the first male swimmer to win the same individual event at three consecutive Olympic Games. 
 
 Phelps then duplicated that feat in his next final, winning his third straight gold in the 100-meter butterfly with a time of 51.21 seconds. In earning his 17th career gold medal, Phelps topped South Africa’s Chad Le Clos, who beat Phelps by five hundredths of a second in the 200-meter butterfly final earlier in the Games. 
 
 Then, in what was believed to be Phelps’ final Olympic race, his 4×100-meter medley team won gold — Phelps’ 18th gold medal and 22nd overall — with a time of 3:29.35, as Phelps bid farewell to the Olympics (or so we thought) with a 50.73-second butterfly leg. 
 
 Now all that’s left to do is see what Phelps has left. It’s unclear as of yet which relay teams will include Phelps, but his first shot at an individual medal could come Aug. 9, in the 200-meter butterfly final.
– The 2016 Olympics came to an end when Rio officially handed things over to 2020 host Tokyo Sunday night in a jubilant closing ceremony that featured, among other things, Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe rising from a pipe dressed as Super Mario. A look back at some of the best moments from Rio: Usain Bolt's triple-triple. "I am the greatest," the Jamaican runner declared after winning gold in a third race at a third consecutive Olympics. Few would quibble with that statement. Michael Phelps' swim into history. He took another six golds in Rio, giving the "once in 10 generations" swimmer a staggering 23 golds over his career—14 more than any other athlete has ever scored. Team Refugee. For the first time, the Olympics featured a team made up of refugees from the world's conflict zones. "You have inspired us with your talent and human spirit," IOC President Thomas Bach said in his closing address. Simone Biles' amazing performance. She won a record-tying fourth gold in one of the greatest Olympics a gymnast ever had, displaying what Penelope Blackmore at the Guardian calls "jaw-dropping power, laser precision, and pure dynamism." Almaz Ayana's record-breaking run. Some 27 world records were broken in Rio. The first to fall inside the Olympic Stadium was the women's 10,000-meter record, which the Ethiopian runner beat by more than 14 seconds. Liina, Lily, and Leila Luik. The Estonian women set a different kind of Olympic record by becoming the first triplets ever to compete in the marathon. Helping hands. America's Abbey D'Agostino and New Zealand's Nikki Hamblin showed true Olympic spirit—and won Fair Play Awards—by helping each other after a tumble in the women's 5,000 meters. The Brits who are being called the best couple. Kate and Helen Richardson-Walsh not only became the first same-sex married couple to compete in the Olympics, they won the field hockey gold. Changing of the guard. Phelps had an Olympic swimming career that might never be matched unless dolphins start competing—though he was beaten in the 100-meter butterfly by 21-year-old Singaporean Joseph Schooling, who grew up idolizing Phelps. Soccer gold. Brazilians breathe soccer, and they got what the AP calls a "perfect finish to an imperfect Olympics" when their team beat Germany to take the gold.