Olympic champion Nathan Adrian of Bremerton earned a bronze medal in the 100 freestyle on Wednesday evening, in 47.85 seconds at the Rio Olympics.
Adrian was trying to become the first American to win back-to-back golds in the sprint event since Johnny Weismuller did it in 1924-28.
“I feel great about getting another medal, man. No doubt,” he said. “To be able to look at the side of the block and see that there’s lights there. It’s what you work for. It would be great to have gold, but in this day and age in the 100 freestyle’s maybe the most fickle event out there.”
It’s Adrian’s second medal of the games, he anchored the 4×100 free relay on Sunday to a win, and his sixth career Olympic medal. Adrian was out-touched at the wall by gold medalist Kyle Chalmers in 47.58 and Belgium’s Pieter Timmers in 47.80 for silver.
Adrian said he believed he was able to swim his own race.
“I did. I was next to a couple of guys who come home really fast,” he said. “In a pool this small, there’s no getting away from that.”
He will swim Thursday morning in the preliminaries in the 50 freestyle with the semifinals at 6 p.m.
