Sports photographer Donald Miralle shares photos of swimming and fencing from days 7 and 8 of the Olympics.

Despite his shortcomings in the 400-meter individual medley, Michael Phelps was able to grab gold in the 200-meter individual medley with Ryan Lochte getting silver. Phelps won with a time of 1:54.27 with Lochte right behind him at 1:54.90.  By receiving Gold in the 200 meter individual medley, Phelps is now the first male swimmer to win the same swimming event three Olympics in a row. In the women’s 200-meter breaststroke, Rebecca Soni broke the world record with a time of 2:19:59 and received her 11th gold medal in just the first 6 days. Soni won this same event 4 years ago in Beijing and now is the first woman to defend a breaststroke title in the Olympics.

Continue reading and see more swimming photos on Donald’s blog.

After falling asleep at 4am, backing up files and talking to my family, I really needed to lie in bed and catch up with sleep. My plan was to go to trampoline gymnastics in the morn and fencing finals in the evening, but after hitting snooze a couple times I slept until noon which felt unreal.

I used the rest of the early afternoon to do laundry, get a run and a workout in (my biggest paddleboard race of the season the 32mile Catalina Classic is two weeks after I return) and update some of my photo editing software. With one week down and another to go, it’s good to recharge your battery and prepare yourself for the second week of nonstop work. I then packed up my kit and went to the Excell Center to cover the Men’s Gold Medal Sabre Final.

Continue reading and see more photos on Donald’s blog.