Phelps exulted after his victory, wagging his finger, raising his arms and orchestrating the crowd’s response.
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The win meant that Phelps took back the gold medal from South Africa’s Chad le Clos, who barely beat Phelps in London.
Phelps beat Japan’s Masato Sakai by just four hundredths of a second to take the 200m butterfly and later anchored the USA 4x200m freestyle relay team to victory.
Both Phelps and Ledecky have dominated in the pool but it was the main man who commanded the attention after exorcising his demons of yesteryear.
In an unforgettable display of Olympic power, Michael Phelps won two more finals to take his historic all-time record load to 21 golds and cement his legendary status.
Phelps’s victory was all the more poignant as he had lost the same event to Le Clos at London 2012, which was supposed to be the American’s Olympic farewell.
Much of the talk ahead of the rematch in Rio had centered on Phelps’ revenge mission – and he didn’t disappoint – he smashed it.
Katie Ledecky, leading the new generation of American swimming stars, captured her second gold of the Games by holding off a courageous charge from Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom to take the women’s 200m freestyle final in 1:53.73.
“Going into the finish I said, ‘If I have to take a half-stroke, I’m going to take a half stroke, ‘” Phelps said.
As the noise grew, Phelps stood tall and asked the crowd for more.
To top it off, he added his 21st gold medal soon after, anchoring the 4×200 freestyle relay.
Phelps now has 25 medals in all, and three more races in Rio to add to his nearly unimaginable total.
Ledecky, chasing her second gold of the Games after winning the 400-meter freestyle, edged out Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom and Australia’s Emma McKeon in a thrilling race.
Few would bet against her making it three golds, with the American holding the world record in the event.
“That hurt pretty badly”, she told reporters after the race.
After winning at the at the 2015 World Championships, the South African told NBC Sports: “He’s been talking a lot of smack in the media about how slow the butterfly is, so I just can’t wait until I race him”. With his head almost at the wall, he took one more stroke to make sure he got there first, his arms slamming against the timing pad. “That’s the closest I’ve ever come to throwing up after a race”. It was his 20th Olympic gold, The New York Times reports.
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Thursday: 100-meter butterfly heats, 10:31 a.m. / 200-meter individual medley final, 7:01 p.m.
