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Rio Olympics: Phelps, Biles, Manuel golden on Thursday

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Fri, Aug 12th 2016 10:30 am

"Captain America, Superman, put them all together - he's better than all of them!" Rowdy Gaines on Michael Phelps' 200m IM win

"This has been her destiny all along," Al Trautwig on Simone Biles' gold medal win in the all-around competition

NBC Olympics' primetime coverage of the Games of the XXXI Olympiad from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, continued Thursday night on the networks of NBCUniversal.

Primetime host Bob Costas opened up coverage on NBC from NBC Olympics' studio located inside the International Broadcast Center in Rio. Primetime coverage on Day 6 of the Rio Games on NBC was highlighted by Michael Phelps collecting his 22nd career gold medal in the 200m IM and qualifying for the finals in the 100m butterfly; Simone Biles, who earned her first Olympic gold medal on Tuesday in the team competition, becoming the fourth consecutive American to win Olympic gold in the women's gymnastics individual all-around, while teammate Aly Raisman captured silver; and Simone Manuel tying for gold in the 100m freestyle to become the first African-American woman to win an individual Olympic medal in swimming.

In addition, Ryan Murphy captured his second gold in Rio in the 200m backstroke, Nathan Adrian qualified for the 50m freestyle final, and Maya Dirado qualified for the 200m backstroke final.

This evening's Olympic action also featured Fiji capturing the Olympic gold in men's rugby against Great Britain; the U.S. women's field hockey team's victory over India; and Team USA defeating Brazil in men's volleyball, all on NBCSN.

Following are highlights from the evening and primetime coverage of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games on the networks of NBCUniversal:

SWIMMING - NBC

Analyst Rowdy Gaines on Phelps and Lochte: "This is the greatest rivalry in the history of swimming. These guys are now 31 and 32 ... but they're not just out there for a ceremonial swim - they're very, very relevant. This is a race for gold one last time."

Play-by-play announcer Dan Hicks as Phelps broke away in the 200m IM: "This isn't even close! Michael Phelps has done it again!"

Gaines on Phelps' 200m IM win: "Captain America, Superman, put them all together - he's better than all of them! (He won by) two seconds! We thought we were going to get a race. ... You can't question this amazing athlete."

Ryan Lochte to Michele Tafoya, following his 5th-place finish in the 200m IM: "It's been a long journey. I just wish I did a little better. I felt great before the race. I guess I just didn't have it tonight."

Lochte to Tafoya on whether he'll continue swimming: "How long I've been doing it, it's hard to find ways to make it fun again. ... I'm going to need some time off, to take a break mentally and physically. Who knows; I might be back."

Gaines on Murphy's 200m backstroke win: "The king of backstroke! There's a new king, and he's right there staring at you. What a stretch to home; unbelievable!"

Gaines on Missy Franklin's tough start in Rio: "All the coaches and swimmers I've talked to have said, 'It's our turn to carry Missy on our shoulders, she carried us four years ago.' She's having a tough time, she's a great teammate. She hasn't created one ounce of drama over herself - always a smile on her face. This is a woman I have tremendous respect for."

Gaines on Franklin failing to qualify for the final in the 200m backstroke: "That's the end of the road for Missy Franklin here in Rio. She'll live to see another day. It's not over for her by any stretch of the imagination, but her Rio Games are finished."

Gaines on Manuel's win in the women's 100m freestyle to become the first African-American woman to medal in an individual event in swimming: "For so many reasons, certainly personal, this gold means so much, but it means so much more for our sport. I can't begin to tell you what this means for the sport of swimming in the United States."

Manuel to Tafoya on what the medal means to her: "It means a lot. This medal is not just for me, it's for a whole bunch of people who have come before me and been an inspiration to me, Maritza (Correia McClendon), Cullen (Jones), and it's for all the people after me who believe they can't do it. I just want to be an inspiration to others that you can do it."

Gaines on Phelps's second-place finish in the 100m butterfly semifinal: "Let me knock on wood - but I just think he's going to make the final. And he's going to win six gold medals. I don't know how he gets off the block after 30 minutes coming out of that 200m IM. Didn't we just see him on that award stand getting a gold medal seven minutes ago?"

Phelps to Tafoya on being the first swimmer to win four straight gold medals: "Winning four in a row - when the announcer said that, I had a really hard time holding it together. ... Being able to win 22 Olympic gold medals, it's something you dream of. I'm living a dream come true. ... This is exactly how I wanted to exit the sport."

GYMNASTICS - NBC

Analyst Tim Daggett on Raisman: "Aly has been saying all along that one of her main motivations is that she missed out on an all-around medal in 2012. She tied Aliya Mustafina, but a tie-breaking procedure gave the medal to Mustafina, and she has wanted to come back ever since."

Daggett on only allowing two athletes per country to participate in the all-around: "We've talked about just how dominant Team USA is. The third-best gymnast in the world by a large margin is Gabby Douglas, the reigning Olympic all-around champion. That's how good they are. The USA has left home athletes that could have come to these Olympic Games and won medals."

Play-by-play commentator Al Trautwig on Raisman: "Winning that team gold - awesome. But, this is the moment she came back for."

Daggett on Raisman's floor routine: "Some say the sequel isn't as good as the original - Aly Raisman just proved them wrong. ... Unbelievable that four years later after her prime - she shows that it wasn't her prime."

Trautwig on Biles' gold medal win in the all-around: "This has been her destiny all along."

Daggett on Biles' floor routine: "You want a moment like this to be punctuated by one of your best routines of your life, and that certainly was for Simone."

RUGBY - NBCSN

Analyst Brian Hightower on the excitement surrounding this match: "Across the islands, back in Suva, in the national stadium, packed in there to watch this match. ... Everywhere there's a television set in Fiji, there's a group of screaming islanders watching this game right now."

Hightower on the gold medal rugby match: "You can look at the score line (43-7, Fiji) you can think that maybe this game wasn't too competitive - what you're witnessing is the greatest rugby sevens team in the world"

Hightower on the impact this game will have on the Fijians: "It's hard to put into words how big of an icon each one of these players will be when they go back home. They already were, because they wore the white jersey of Fiji, but being gold medalists, they will be heroes in their homeland forevermore."

FIELD HOCKEY - NBCSN

Play-by-play announcer Mike Corey on a fantastic start for the U.S in Rio, winning their fourth straight game against India: "Not sure how many people understand how big this is for Team USA in women's field hockey - a last-place finish in London four years ago, and they've never won more than two games in a single Olympics."

Analyst A.J. Mleczko on the U.S.' victory over India: "They've worked so hard. ... Here they are performing at their best."

VOLLEYBALL - NBCSN

Analyst Kevin Barnett on the U.S. win over Brazil: "The measure of any team is how you respond when things aren't perfect, how you play when your back is against the wall. Do you play with and for one another, or do you yield and fold? This team came together and delivered an epic performance in what was a match of the ages, one you should watch over and over again just for the joy."

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