Rio Olympics 2016 medal tally: USA on top with 60 medals after Phelps' last hurrah

Rio de Janeiro: Dana Vollmer, America’s self-styled “Momma on a mission”, delivered again as the United States captured its 1,000th Olympic gold medal with victory in the women’s 4x100m medley relay in Rio, adding to their medal tally at the Games. Vollmer teamed up with backstroker Kathleen Baker, breaststroker Lilly King and freestyle sprinter Simone Manuel to claim victory in Saturday’s race in three minutes 53.13 seconds. [caption id=“attachment_2955684” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] United States’ Michael Phelps walks with his national flag during the medal ceremony for the men’s 4 x 100-meter medley relay. AP[/caption] In a historic race, Michael Phelps brought down the curtain on his glittering Olympic career when he helped the USA win 4x100m medley relay gold at the Rio Games on Saturday, taking his personal tally to 23. Phelps took the lead in the third leg, the butterfly, before Nathan Adrian brought it home as the United States won ahead of Britain and Australia. Pernille Blume, who quit swimming after being told she was too short, gave Denmark its first gold in the Olympic pool for 68 years Saturday with a surprise win in the 50m freestyle. Elsewhere, Elaine Thompson stormed to victory in the women’s 100m to usher in a new era for Jamaican sprinting as the eight-year Olympic reign of compatriot Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce came to an end. Thompson, 24, got off to a flying start and quickly surged to the front to cross in 10.71sec, punching the air before embracing training partner Fraser-Pryce. Gregorio Paltrinieri stormed to Italy’s first swimming gold medal of the Rio Olympics with a brilliant victory in the men’s 1,500m freestyle on Saturday. Paltrinieri threatened the world record set by China’s Sun Yang in winning Olympic gold in 2012. His time of 14min 34.57sec was almost five seconds in front of America’s Connor Jaeger with another Italian, Gabriele Detti, taking bronze. At the end of day eight, United States topped the medal tally with 60 medals (24 Gold, 18 Silver, 18 Bronze), followed by China on 41 (13 Gold, 11 Silver, 17 Bronze). Great Britain on 30 medals (10 Gold, 13 Silver, 7 Bronze), followed by Germany on 16 medals (8 Gold, 5 Silver, 3 Bronze) rounded up the third and fourth spot respectively. Here is the Rio Olympics medal tally after day eight:

Click here for the LIVE medal tally With inputs from AFP