Women’s medley relay wins 1000th summer Olympics gold for United States – Chicago Tribune

The U.S. women’s 4×100-meter medley relay team won gold — and reached a milestone for the United States.

Kathleen Baker, Lilly King, Dana Vollmer and Simone Manuel teaming up to prevail at the Rio Games on Saturday night is being recognized by the U.S. Olympic Committee as the nation’s 1,000th gold medal in Summer Olympics history.

Manuel swam the last leg, and when she hit the wall her three teammates hugged on the pool deck. Their winning time was 3 minutes, 53.13 seconds.

The U.S. is the first nation to win 1,000 summer golds, the first of those coming in 1896. No other nation comes close — the Soviet Union stopped at 473 golds, and no other country is on pace to reach the milestone until 2100.