The most decorated Olympian of all time, Phelps owns 18 Olympic gold medals and looks to add more to his legacy while in Rio. He made his first Olympic team in 2000 as a teenager, and he has competed in every Games since.
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He is the second swimmer to carry the flag for the US, joining Gary Hall in 1976.
All eyes are on Rio de Janeiro as the Olympics are set to begin on Friday, August 5.
This year’s Olympics will be the first ever in South America.
The world’s two largest economies, the United States and China, will again win most gold medals at the Olympic Games and Britain will push Russian Federation into third place in the overall standings, Goldman Sachs predicted in a survey released earlier this week. For Beijing, I wanted to do something nobody else had done (breaking Mark Spitz’s record with eight gold medals).
Phelps will resume his rivalry with US teammate Ryan Lochte in the 200m medley, while he will have the chance to avenge a rare defeat in the butterfly.
But in the overall count, it will take home 59 medals, one more than Russian Federation, the survey said. While the men’s team will be staying aboard a luxury cruise liner, the USA women’s basketball team will also be living aboard the Silver Cloud cruise ship. In London, I wanted to make history. Now a dad, 31 years old and still a man on the move faster than most in water, Phelps is at his fifth Games and a contender in the 100 and 200m butterfly and 200m medley as well as relays.
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Another important factor, she added, is “sports culture”, and since it can not be easily taken in data, Bredtmann based instead at the number of medals won in the previous Olympic Games.
