The American crushed rival Chad le Clos to regain his 200 metres butterfly title, celebrating victory in a race bristling with tension by pointing to the sky and gesturing to the Rio crowd to bring the noise an order they duly obeyed. It was four years ago in London when le Clos, who grew up idolizing Phelps, gave him his first loss at a major worldwide meet in a decade in the 200 butterfly by just out-touching him at the wall. “We’ve seen that guy go through a lot of adversity, from winning gold medals without goggles, so I think a different cap won’t stop that guy from having a good split [time]”.
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Much of the talk ahead of the rematch in Rio had centered on Phelps’ revenge mission – and he didn’t disappoint – he smashed it.
Amid all this sparring has been Katie Ledecky, the 19-year-old prodigy from Maryland, fighting with no one except perhaps the laws of physics.
Once again, Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu lived up to her nickname “Iron Lady” as she earned her third gold medal for the Games in the 200 individual medley.
The final may be the last time they face off for Olympic gold in this event.
Phelps, racing away on the final length, finished in a time of 1 minute 53.73 seconds with Japan’s Masato Sakai taking silver and Hungary’s Tamas Kenderesi claiming bronze.
Phelps has now won three gold medals in Rio, and he will have the opportunity to pick up two more later this week. He then won another gold in the 200-meter freestyle relay – along with teammates Conor Dwyer, Townley Haas and Ryan Lochte.
Swimming: Men’s 100m freestyle – Caeleb Dressel and Nathan Adrian are competing in the U.S. Adrian barely qualified earlier in the 16th spot to advance to the semis. “It’s the same two events that he had in 2004”.
The American women’s gymnastics team – made up of Simone Biles, Laurie Hernandez, Aly Raisman, Gabby Douglas and Madison Kocian – were tremendous on the road to capturing gold over Russian Federation (silver) and China (bronze).
Phelps could also be poised to compete in the 200m butterfly semifinals, depending on how he fares in the prelims.
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“I did not say anything to anybody here”, he repeated, “but there wasn’t a shot in hell, I was losing that thing”.
