2016 RIO OLYMPIC GAMES
- Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Swimming: August 6-13
- Olympic Aquatics Stadium, Barra Olympic Park, Rio de Janeiro
- Prelims – 9:00 a.m/12:00 p.m PST/EST (1:00 p.m local), Finals – 6:00 p.m/9:00 p.m PST/EST (10:00 p.m local)
- SwimSwam previews
- Rio Schedule & Results
- Live Stream (NBC)
Spain’s Mireia Belmonte Garcia won a thriller of a 200 fly on night 5 in Rio, and her swim breaks a number of landmarks in Olympic history.
Belmonte becomes Spain’s first Olympic gold medalist in women’s swimming and she now owns 3 of the 4 Olympic medals in the history of women’s swimming in Spain. Her two silvers in 2012 (800 free and 200 fly) were at that time the nation’s best finishes, and only Nina Zhivanevskaya (bronze in the 100 back in 2000) has medaled at an Olympics for Spain.
Belmonte also becomes Spain’s first gold medalist in any sport so far in Rio, but maybe more significantly, becomes the oldest Olympic champion in the history of the women’s 200 fly. She takes that title from former Australian butterfly queen Susie O’Neill, who won the 1996 gold medal at the age of 22. Belmonte is 25 years old.
Making that more impressive is that Belmonte is coming off a shoulder injury that kept her out of the 2015 World Championships. Shoulder injuries in a butterflyer/distance freestyler getting towards the older end of the age spectrum can be a scary thing, but Belmonte conquered them convincingly, capping her comeback with that big breakthrough gold medal.
European Records Broken On Day 5:
| Swimmer | Event | Time | Record |
| Pieter Timmers | M 100 Free | 47.8 | Belgian Record |
| Philip Heintz | M 200 IM | 1:58.85 | German Record |
| Molly Renshaw | W 200 BR | 2:22.33 | British Record |
| Russia (Andreeva, Openysheva, Mullakaeva, Popova) | W 4×200 Free Relay | 7:50.52 | Russian Record |
| Maria Ugolkova | W 100 Free | 54.85 | Swiss Record |
| Susann Bjornsen | W 100 Free | 55.35 | Norwegian Record |
| Julie Meynen | W 100 Free | 55.09 | Luxembourgish Record |
| Jenna Laukkanen | W 200 BR | 2:25.14 | Finnish Record |
| Raphael Stacchiotti | M 200 IM | 2:00.21 | Luxembourgish Record |
| Alona Ribakova | W 200 BR | 2:30.82 | Latvian Record |
Europe Swimming Medal Table As of Day 5:
| COUNTRY | GOLD | SILVER | BRONZE | TOTAL |
| Hungary | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Great Britain | 1 | 3 | 0 | 4 |
| Sweden | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Spain | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Russia | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Belgium | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| France | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Italy | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Total | 6 | 7 | 4 | 17 |
3+1 for Hungary = 2
Congratulations to Mireia. It is wonderful to see that all the countries are coming up in swimming. Makes racing & watching all the more exciting, real (except for the dopers of course) competition.
Jeanette Ottesen’s 53.35 in the W 100 free semifinal was a Danish record.
The oldest before this was 22?!? That’s bonkers.
I feel so old.