The 2020 Olympics in Tokyo were one of the biggest events postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but four years ago was a historic day for the Team USA swimming team at the 2016 Games in Brazil.
On August 12th 2016, legendary american swimmer Michael Phelps won the 200-meter Individual Medley and his 15th individual Olympic medal, breaking the record of Soviet artistic gymnast Larisa Latynina for most individual Olympic medals of all-time.
The competition started with the host country chanting for their national star Thiago Perreira's name and Phelps was behind Perreira in the first leg.
"Watch Pereira go. The crowd has got him pumped", were the words of the commentator.
Nonetheless, after the freestyle portion, Phelps took off and dominated the competition.
It would be Phelps' fourth consecutive Olympic victory in the event.
In the women's competition, there was more history.
Katie Ledecky defeated England's Rebecca Adlington, the world record holder and world champion, whom Ledecky beat before in the London 2012 Games.
At 19 years old, Ledecky managed to hold a phenomenal pace throughout the competition, never losing the lead and winning the gold medal in the longest Olympic swimming competition. With the win, Ledecky became the second U.S. woman to sweep 200-, 400- and 800-meter freestyle races in a single Olympiad, the first one being Debbie Meyer in 1968. Katie Ledecky was the most decorated female athlete of the 2016 Olympic Games with four gold medals and one silver medal.
Ledecky also re-broke her own world record in the 800, after beating silver medalist Jazz Carlin by nearly 12 seconds.
Simone Manuel won the 100-meter freestyle, becoming the first Black female swimmer to win an individual medal. Manuel shared the gold medal with Canadian Penny Oleksiak while both swimmers broke the world record of 52.70 seconds in the 100-meter competition.
After the historic victory, Manuel expressed that she hoped the gold medal would bring "hope and change" to the United States.