Olympics, Day 6: Simone Manuel Joins Phelps, Biles, and Raisman in the Spotlight

Swimming and gymnastics have dominated NBC’s primetime telecast so far in Rio, but they continue to deliver. In fact, Thursday night’s broadcast may have been the best yet with more feats from Michael Phelps, more dominance from gymnasts Simon Biles and Aly Raisman, who went one-two in the women’s all-around, and wonderful moments like Simone Manuel tying for the 100m freestyle gold and Ryan Murphy continuing the U.S. backstroke dynasty in the 200m. Let’s break down the most emotional moments.

Which was better: Simone Manuel’s surprised reaction to realizing she’d tied for gold…

…Or Simone Manuel explaining how it feels to be the first African-American woman to win individual gold in swimming: “This medal is not just for me: It’s for a whole bunch of people that came before me and have been an inspiration to me. … And it’s for all the people after me, who believe they can’t do it. And I just want to be an inspiration to others that you can do it.”

…Or Simone Manuel crying as she embraced her coach from Stanford, who was also moved to tears. Or Simone Manuel tearing up at her medal ceremony when the American flag started to rise?

Emotions were also high at the end of the women’s gymnastics all-around competition. As commentator Tim Daggett pointed out, so often sequels aren’t as good as the original, but Aly Raisman was better than she was in the 2012 London Games. Unlike the women’s team competition, which lacked any real drama or spontaneity because the U.S. was in so much command, we got to pretend Aly needed our (virtual) support when she dropped to fourth following the uneven bars, her weakest rotation. (Hope someone checked on her parents.)

She was solid as ever on the beam.

And then her floor routine was a thing of beauty. You could tell after her second pass that Aly could feel she could do no wrong, like she knew her body wasn’t going to betray the last four years of work she’d put in to winning an all-around medal after missing out on one in London in the cruelest way possible (losing a tiebreaker for the bronze). When Raisman, who’s been so composed taking those deep breaths throughout her routines in Rio, let the tears flow as soon as she hit her final pose, I got chills and burst into tears. What about you?

And speaking of composed, what about Biles taking the time to hug Raisman, which almost made Biles cry, before doing her own floor routine? It’s as though seeing Aly put on a show and enjoy it inspired Biles to be even more charismatic in her jaw-dropping routine.

My two other favorite moments from their domination: Biles and Raisman walking hand in hand to the floor for that final rotation. That is the definition of teammates.

And Biles inviting Raisman up to the floor after she celebrated her victory (which, by the way, was by a greater margin than that of the past nine women’s all-around champs, between 1980 and 2012, COMBINED). That is the definition of class act.

We need to see more of that.

Back to the pool… Yes, we’re disappointed for Ryan Lochte, who came in fifth in the 200m IM, which is most likely his last Olympic swim ever. He wanted to go out better, and we wanted one more Phelps-Lochte bromance at a medal ceremony.

Related: 21 Photos That Capture the Phelps-Lochte Rivalry Through the Years

But we’d have to settle for this prer-ace side-by-side carbo-loading.

And this post-race extended handshake in the pool.

Let’s have another look at Phelps’ insane margin of victory as he became the first swimmer to win gold in the same event four Olympics in a row. That distance between him and the rest of the field is Katie Ledecky territory. (Also, Rowdy Gaines lives for this moment.)

Phelps got out of the pool so gingerly, you half wondered if he’d pulled something. He hadn’t. Roughly 37 minutes after that race, he had to swim again to qualify for Friday night’s 100m butterfly final. And in between, he had to go on another emotional roller coaster for the medal ceremony for that 22nd career Olympic gold.

As Phelps said in his post-race interview, he’s getting to go out the way he wanted. Stay golden, pool boy, in the races still to come. And P.S., nice of the Baltimore Ravens to pause a preseason game to show the 200m IM to the crowd in attendance.

Keeping alive another tradition, Ryan Murphy took home the gold for the 200m backstroke, meaning he swept the backstroke in Rio after also winning the 100m. Murphy wants to continue that U.S. hold — now six Olympics strong — then help support the swimmers who come after him like the past champs have supported him. Those letters of encouragement they wrote him continue to be one of my favorites stories from Rio.

Other moments to celebrate from Day 6…

This 42-second rally in the U.S. men’s volleyball team’s upset of top-ranked Brazil.

Kayla Harrison winning her second judo gold in Rio. They should give medals for best jumps into the stands.

If you thought that celebration was impressive, check out the one from Brazil’s bronze medalist.

Fiji won its first-ever Olympic gold in the return of rugby.

And yes, Leslie Jones arrived in Rio! First, she hit the gymnastics.

Then she had “the worst seats ever” at the aquatic center until Conor Dwyer, her favorite in our eyes, invited her to come sit with the U.S. swim team members who were there rooting on their pals.

She got close to the action.

Like, real close.