Legend produces another awesome effort to lead US to glory in 4x100m freestyle relay

When Michael Phelps arrived in Rio as a 31-year-old swimmer who had retired once and endured plenty of turmoil away from the pool, everyone wondered just how many gold medals was a realistic goal.

How does six sound?

In his first appearance at these Summer Games on Sunday, Phelps showed he is still capable of the kind of jaw-dropping performances that have made him the most decorated Olympian of them all.

Going second in the 4x100-meter freestyle relay, Phelps produced the fastest split of his career and put the US out front for good against a heavy-weight field that included defending champion France, Australia and Russia.

It was a down-and-back swim that showed Phelps, as usual, is in peak form on the biggest stage and perfectly capable of winning every race he enters at his fifth Olympics.

"Michael usually works this way: When one thing is good, everything is pretty good," said his longtime coach, Bob Bowman. "It doesn't usually work in parts. So I feel pretty good now."

He has every reason.

Phelps was returning to the pool on Monday for the preliminaries of the 200m butterfly, a title he is especially eager to reclaim after an ill-timed finish let South Africa's Chad le Clos snatch the gold at the 2012 London Games.

Phelps will also compete in the 100m butterfly and 200m individual medley, and two more relays.

His confidence is soaring after he turned in a time of 47.12 sec in the relay, which was faster than all but three other swimmers in the field - all of them anchors on medal-winning teams and specialists in the 100 freestyle.

It was faster than any of his relay splits at the past three Olympics - even faster than the time he produced at the height of his career in 2008, when he broke Mark Spitz's longstanding record with eight gold medals in Beijing.

"I hope that's a good sign," Phelps said. "I guess we'll see over the next couple of days. But I'm very pleased with the start."

France had high hopes of defending the title it won four years ago in London, only to be doomed by another Phelps masterpiece.

"As fast as my teammates were, the extraterrestrial that is Phelps was faster," said Fabien Gilot, who had the unfortunate task of swimming the second leg for the silver medalists.

Gilot's time was more than a second slower than Phelps, which was essentially the deciding factor in the race. The French were faster on the first and third legs, and anchor Jeremy Stravius was only 0.14 slower than the last US swimmer, Nathan Adrian.

The Australians, with plenty of big names of their own, settled for the bronze. They didn't mind being on a lower rung of the podium, considering who was on top.

"It's always great to see a fairy tale like that unfold in a race you're part of," James Magnussen said.

Phelps' showing was reminiscent of the dominance he demonstrated last summer in San Antonio, where he competed in a low-level meet because he was banned from the world championships as part of his punishment for a second drunken driving arrest. Thoroughly motivated, Phelps put up times that were faster than the winning ones at the worlds.

The arrest proved to be a turning point in Phelps' life, prompting him to undergo six weeks of inpatient therapy, give up drinking, reconnect with his estranged father and find a new life away from the pool.

He ended up getting engaged and becoming a father. His infant son, Boomer, was in the stands on Sunday night, nuzzled in the arms of mother Nicole Johnson, the roaring crowd kept at bay by noise-canceling headphones.

Still, this was all a bit of a surprise after Phelps turned in some rather lackluster times at the US Olympic trials just a month before the Rio Games.

About a week ago, during a final training camp in Atlanta, he did a 100m freestyle time trial, with somewhat pedestrian results.

At that point, according to Bowman, his spot on the 4x100m free relay was very much in doubt.

Oh say, can you sob?

Ryan Held couldn't sing The Star Spangled Banner with his teammates-he was too overcome with emotion on the top tier of the medal podium.

Held broke down crying during the US national anthem, his shoulders shaking and his eyes squeezed shut after Sunday's victory in the 4x100-meter freestyle relay.

Held, Caeleb Dressel, Michael Phelps and Nathan Adrian combined to claim gold in 3 min, 9.92 sec for the first time since the 2008 Beijing Games.

Standing between Adrian and Phelps, Held bent his head and brought his left hand to his face as the anthem played. Phelps saw what was happening and offered a supportive hand around Held's neck.

"I didn't think I was going to cry. I was too tired to cry. I didn't think I could cry," Held said. "I've heard the national anthem hundreds of times, but as soon as that played it was just something different. The tears just started rolling down my face."

On the stroll around the pool, gold medals slung around their necks, Dressel lost it, too. He brought his right arm across his face to wipe away tears.

"They were making us cry," said Phelps, who had a tear roll down his cheek while posing for photographers.

Adrian swam the anchor leg for a team highly motivated to bring Olympic gold back to the US. The Americans lost the race four years ago in London and didn't even make the final at last year's world championships in Russia.

Adrian smiled as he comforted his younger teammates.

"I love a little emotion," he said. "I had to fight back some tears myself."

Michael Phelps, already the most successful Olympian in history, was in a kissy mood after winning his 19th gold medal and 23rd overall in Sunday's 4x100m freestyle relay. Michael Sohn / Ap

(China Daily 08/09/2016 page5)