Scenes from the Water Cube – August 17

It was the last day of the Olympic swimming meet and they saved some of the most exciting moments for the end. Not only did Michael Phelps swim to an unprecedented 8 for 8 Gold Medals, but Dara Torres showed that 40 is not too old to compete in Olympic swimming. Below are the highlights:

Germany’s Britta Steffen topped Dara Torres of the United States by just .01 seconds in the women’s 50m freestyle event, the “splash and dash.” Sixteen-year-old Cate Campbell of Australia finished third for the Bronze Medal.

This is the second Gold Medal of the meet for Steffen, who won the 100m freestyle event on Friday.

Less than 1/2 hour later, the US women (with Dara Torres as anchor) gave it their all, but finished second to the Gold Medal-winning Australian women in the 4×100m medley. The Australians (Emily Seebohm, Leisel Jones, Jessicah Schipper, and Lisbeth Trickett) set a new world record at 3:52.69. The Chinese team finished third for the Bronze Medal.

In the men’s 1500m freestyle event, Tunisa’s Oussama Mellouli won over defending Gold Medalist Grant Hackett of Australia. Canada’s Ryan Cochrane finished third for the Bronze Medal.

Finally, the last event of the 2008 Olympic swimming meet, the men’s 4×100m medley, gave Michael Phelps his historic eighth Gold Medal in one meet and continued the Americans dominance of this event. The United States has won the 4×100 medley all eleven times that the event has been a part of the Games. Team USA (Phelps, Aaron Piersol, Brendan Hansen, and Jason Lezak) set a new world record of 3:29.34 with their win. The Silver Medal went to the Australians and the Bronze Medal was awarded to the Japanese team.