Three Months Later, Four Olympians Pick Their Rio Olympic Moments

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Photo Courtesy: David Rieder

By David Rieder.

Rowdy Gaines may as well have discarded his notes.

The enthusiastic gold medalist and NBC announcer was in vintage form as he rattled off the accomplishments of the four Olympians he was welcoming on to the stage. Gaines was emceeing the “Rio Olympic Moments” event for the USA Swimming Foundation, and like the crowd of 200 gathered inside the Paley Center in New York City, he was in awe.

There was Katie Meili, the late-bloomer whose college coaches convinced her that she might have something left to give in the sport after finishing third in the 100 breast at the NCAA championships her senior year at Columbia. (They were right.)

Next up was Connor Jaeger, the distance ace who admitted that he enjoyed making others enjoy the pain as they tried to keep up with him. Then came Maya DiRado, who announced even before the Olympic Trials that this would be her one and only shot at an Olympic Games.

Finally, up walked Ryan Murphy, the typically-laid-back backstroker who admitted that on the day before he was to lead off the U.S. men’s 400 free relay in Rio, “I felt like absolute crap.”

Murphy, of course, ended up leading off in 51.85, a new world record for the 100 back.

“I called it,” DiRado said. “I knew he was going to break that world record.”

And of course, the world tuned in to watch the fairly notable swimmer who was handling butterfly duties for the third straight Olympics.

“Michael [Phelps] was on the relay. That was supposed to be his last race,” Murphy said, inciting laughter from the audience.”

That relay put a cap on one of the all-time great performances at an Olympic Games, the 33rd overall medal and 16th gold for the United States, matching the highest totals for any team since the two-per-country rule came into existence and marking the 15th straight Games the U.S. has led the overall medal count in swimming.

“It’s not a coincidence,” Jaeger said. “I don’t know if this is unique to Americans or not. People had their own goals—I wanted to medal—but I wanted to contribute to an American medal count. Everybody in this room takes pride that we came away with 33 medals.”

Gaines asked the quartet to name their favorite moments of the meet. Each one had some good options.

Meili responded first, naming DiRado’s upset win over Katinka Hosszu in the women’s 200 back.

“I’ve always looked up to Maya,” Meili said. She does everything the right way. She’s so genuine and sincere. She does everything the right way.”

Gaines and the crowd demanded that DiRado recall the moment, the 50 meters when she caught up to and snuck by Hosszu to win Olympic gold in the final race of her career.

“There was no way she was going to win that gold medal,” Gaines “Did anyone in our production group pick her to win gold?”

“I’m not offended,” DiRado replied. “At the last turn, I thought that [Hosszu] was ahead, but I thought that I was closer than I was. I heard the crowd getting louder, so I thought maybe I was gaining a little bit. I thought about how cool it was that I was racing for an Olympic medal.”

In the moments after she touched the wall and saw the scoreboard, DiRado felt as though she could not control her body, not quite sure how she should react.

“When Simone [Manuel] won [gold in the 100 free], we were in tears. It never crossed my mind that I would also win,” she said.

After DiRado recalled her golden moment, it was on to Jaeger to pick his most fond memory from the Games. With five full days off in between his 400 free final and his 1500 free prelim, Jaeger had plenty of time to watch the action unfold from his suite in the Olympic Village.

Jaeger picked the first of the five gold medal-winning U.S. relays. Phelps and Nathan Adrian were returning to try to reclaim gold in the men’s 400 free relay, and with them were two men who had just completed their sophomore years in college. Their mission succeeded.

“Ryan Held cried on the podium,” Jaeger recalled. “You won gold with Michael Phelps, and you’re being consoled on the podium.”

Murphy, meanwhile, admitted that he dropped a few curse words during a television interview when Manuel won gold in the 100 free. A day later, he was riding on a bus from the Olympic Aquatic Center to the Village with Kathleen Baker while DiRado was competing in the 200 back final—and not exactly keeping quiet.

“I refreshed my phone so much I went over my data limit!” he said “There were all these foreigners on the bus, and me and Kathleen are going nuts!”

Through eight long, draining days of competition in August, each of these Olympic medalists rightfully found plenty of reason to enjoy themselves.

Front and center in the auditorium, a 20-strong group of Berkeley Aquatic Club senior swimmers were smiling and laughing along with their heroes. Safe to say that few, if any, regretted their choice of activity for one Sunday afternoon.

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Si Abank Wahyu
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