Check out the moment that Olympic icon Michael Phelps stormed to a record 21st gold medal on Wednesday. An hour later, he returned to take what amounted to nothing more than a triumphant victory lap in anchoring the 4×200 freestyle relay, the crowd’s deafening roar growing louder with every stroke. “It’s insane to think about”, Phelps said.
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South African Le Clos, who won by a fingertip four years ago in London to rob the American of a hat-trick of titles, faded badly down the home stretch to miss out on a medal. At that same time, Phelps had a death glare on his face – a true contrast of the two swimmers. It came on a night that American teammate Katie Ledecky picked up her second gold of the Rio Olympics on the way to what could be a historic run of her own in the pool. Get this, Phelps has only three less medals over his career than the country of Brazil (24) has in theirs.
Some, however, carry far more significance than others.
“That’s a lot of medals”, he said.
The 200 fly was the one he really wanted, and it showed.
With challengers all around, Phelps simply wouldn’t be denied. “That’s been the secret that I have had through this year that keeps me healthy”, he says.
The only thing that mattered was getting to the wall first.
When Phelps saw the “1” by his name, he held up one finger.
And then he went around the pool to embrace his partner and baby son Boomer.
“The last 10 meters wasn’t fun”. “My gosh, I thought I was standing still”.
The rivalry between USA swimmer Michael Phelps and South Africa Chad le Clos is well documented.
Phelps is one of those tried-and-tested athletes, featuring the technique on his Instagram, in a video for Under Armour, and quite literally on his sleeve during the competition-he had the purple and red marks all over his back during last night’s men’s freestyle relay race (which they won gold for, BTW).
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On Monday, le Clos seemed like his plan to best Phelps again was to psych him out before their semifinal heat.
