When Michael Phelps made a decision to come out of retirement, he circled one race in particular on the Olympic schedule.
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Le Clos, who clocked 1:52.96 for gold in 2012, could only manage a 1:54.06.
Monday night marked the semifinals for the same event in Rio, and Phelps is looking to claim the gold back from le Clos in Tuesday night’s final.
Hungary’s 19-year-old Tamas Kenderesi surpassed his veteran teammate Cseh to clinch a superb bronze medal in 1:53.62, with Le Clos fading to fourth, more than a half-a-body length behind Phelps in a time of 1:54.06. The South African swimmer enters the highly anticipated race knowing that his parents, who are both fighting cancer, will be watching from the stands. “I’ll race my heart out”.
Phelps will be going for the 20th gold medal of his career, but the South African has plenty of motivation, too. “When you swim for something greater than yourself, it can help you to achieve great things”. She will look to continue her dominant Olympics, swimming in the women’s 200-meter freestyle final, pending Monday night’s semifinals results.
Heavy favorite might be a serious understatement of US prospects as the team final is about to begin Tuesday night at Rio Olympic Arena.
Katie Ledecky has become one to watch in the pool. Phelps did win the first major global medal in the year 2001 in the form of the world championship.
Biles talked about Karolyi’s importance to the sport and the pressure of trying to win gold in Karolyi’s last Olympics and joked about keeping the program at a high level.
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Introducing, the “Phelps Face”, also known as the best meme from Rio 2016. “I think something needs to be done”, he said.
