In the same event is the Hungarian Laszlo Cseh, who qualified for the Olympics with the fastest time of the event and managed to beat gold medallist le Clos at it, at the 2015 World Championships.
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While Phelps’ mom and fiancée Nicole Johnson cheered the swimmer on, Boomer managed to catch a nap.
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Dressel, who did not swim in the event’s heats, led off the Americans in the finals. A recent Under Armour video shows Phelps receiving the treatment, as he has done for years.
As reported by Yahoo News, Phelps achieved the second position, while Le Clos came in third in the semi-final event.
On Tuesday the two men will face a rematch in Rio.
The Americans had failed to reach the final in the event a year ago at the world championships with Phelps on the sideline. It led some to wonder whether the USA streak of earning a medal in every Olympic swim relay it has entered would end Sunday.
Michael Phelps is an avid fan of the technique, and Belarus swimmer Pavel Sankovich placed a photo of the procedure on Instagram and said, “Cupping is a great recovery tool”. “He does his thing; I do my thing”, Phelps told the media after the qualifier. “As one of the old guys, it is pretty cool to see”.
It was a night of world records at the Rio pool. Check it out at the:45 second mark. “So it’s not real bruising”, said American Cody Miller, bronze medallist in the 100-metre backstroke. Sjostrom felt the pressure as the big favorite, telling herself before the start, “It’s just a pool”. “I’ve heard the national anthem hundreds of times, but as soon as that played it was just something different”.
Lochte appeared in his fourth straight 4×200-meter freestyle relay Olympic final and has now won 12 Olympic medals in his career.
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The victory was too much for Held and Dressel, who won their first Olympic medals and had to be consoled by their vastly-experienced team-mate.
