Michael Phelps continues to add to his already impressive Olympics resume.
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The United States brought home even more gold medals on Tuesday night as the women’s gymnastics team and Michael Phelps shined once more. Conor Dwyer, Townley Haas and former Florida standout Ryan Lochte made sure of that, handing off a commanding lead to the most decorated athlete in Olympic history.
Phelps, competing in his fifth and final Olympics, he says, won the 200 butterfly in a time of 1 minute 53.36 seconds, while Chad le Clos, the man who beat him in this event in 2012 in London, faded badly in the final 50 meters and ended up fourth.
Within an 80-minute timeframe and just ten minutes after receiving his 20th gold medal, Phelps anchored the US 4x200m squad, as his team cruised to victory by 2.47 seconds ahead of Great Britain. Only Phelps and five others have won more.
Now, here he is after Michael won his 20th gold.. He just. took the time for her in general, which must have meant a great deal to a little girl who had no idea she’d one day be in his place. Her incredibly fast times and strong, loping stroke have become her signature, a style some describe as a masculine.
The 31-year-old, who has hit the headlines for troubles in his personal life over the last few years, added another gold medal to his collection later the same night as the U.S. clinched victory in the 4x200m freestyle.
Before this latest event, it was clear that both men were trying to make the other one blink, “Batman v Superman”-style”. NBC commentator Rowdy Gaines said it best, however, when he snapped that sports analysts, teammates, and fans should stop saying she “swims like a man…”
“He’s just proving that he is the greatest swimmer of all time with tonight and that 100m split was 47.1”, said his teammate Townley Haas about Phelps anchoring the USA relay victory.
Born in Baltimore, his parents divorced when he was nine years old, just around the same time his sisters encouraged him to take up the sport as an outlet for ADHD.
The 34-year-old and her sister Venus were knocked out of the women’s doubles, the three-time champions’ first ever defeat together in Olympic competition. In her first post-race interview, Ledecky was still panting.
The 200 IM semifinals are set for Wednesday night.
The 200m was the only one that was really in doubt. Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden claims the silver and Emma McKeon of Australia takes the bronze. “It is going to be the race of the Olympics”.
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As hard as it may be to believe, this wasn’t Ledecky’s first brush with an Olympic gold medal victor. 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.
