South African Chad le Clos had shocked Phelps, the 2004 and 2008 Olympic champion, by winning gold ahead of his idol at the London 2012 Games.
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Once the relay was won, Phelps took a moment to himself and sat on the block at the end of the lane.
“Mission accomplished”, he said after claiming the 20th Olympic gold of his career, a number that became 21 after he helped the U.S. team win the 4x200m freestyle relay in the evening’s finale.
On Tuesday, Phelps made up for one of the rare losses in his brilliant career by winning the 200-meter butterfly, a triumph that sent him climbing into the stands to kiss his 3-month-old son Boomer.
“That being my very first Olympic event, to be able to win it in my fifth Olympics is pretty special”.
Phelps now has 25 medals in all, and three more races in Rio to add to his nearly unimaginable total.
Apparently, Michael wanted to show Le Clos that he is still the best swimmer in the world and the title he won in 2012, at the London Olympic Games was just a pure casualty.
Phelps had looked in complete control as he turned into the final 50m but Sakai surged back from sixth place, more than a second quicker than the tiring maestro, to get within 0.04 seconds of the victor, who clocked 1 min 53.36 secs. 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. There she was, a little 9-year-old kid who had already been swimming for three years, meeting the most decorated Olympian of all time, swimmer Michael Phelps (and can I just say, I love his enthusiastic little smile too?). “The last 10 meters were not fun, oh my gosh.”, confessed the athlete.
They are followed in the American all-time gold-medal standings by Jenny Thompson and Matt Biondi (eight golds), Ryan Lochte (six) and Gary Hall (five) – all swimmers.
The Hungarian known as the “Iron Lady” earned her third gold medal of the Rio Games with a victory in the 200 individual medley.
Hosszu added to her wins in the 400 IM and 100 backstroke with a time of 2:06.58. I knew where he was all the time.
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Phelps further said that the 200 metres butterfly was his “bread and butter”, referring that the event was his first race he swam at an Olympics, at Sydney in 2000.
