On Tuesday, it came to the Olympic Aquatics Stadium here for Ledecky and Phelps and the three golds they combined to take home. “I told Bob [Bowman] when I came back how bad I wanted that 200 fly, and I came into the pool tonight on a mission”.
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The 200m butterfly was his first world record in 2001 and he was determined to win back the Olympic title he lost to South Africa’s Chad Le Clos in 2012. “The kid’s got talent”, he said, essentially refusing to discuss le Clos as a peer.
Friday: 100-meter butterfly finals, 6:12 p.m.
To close the night, the US men, with Phelps dropping the hammer on the anchor, following Conor Dwyer, Townley Haas and Ryan Lochte, raced to gold in the 4x200m free relay, in 7:00.66.
“The way he raced, everything he had was in there”, Bowman said. He then burst into laughter because his friends belted out “O!” during the anthem, a Baltimore Orioles tradition.
Phelps later responded saying he was motivated to perform better by the comments.
“I’m gonna keep doing it until I stop having fun”, he said recently.
The exchange came just hours after the infamous “death stare” given by Phelps ahead of the butterfly semi-final.
“It’s going to take a ideal performance in order to beat him just because of how tough a competitor he is”, Lochte said. Substitute Phelps on either the third or fourth leg and the winning streak in the event is never snapped. And that was the last time I’ll ever swim it. It was her body telling her enough, her internal combustion engine redlining, the previous 175 meters and the previous four days having taxed her so deeply she came up for a breath and instead unleashed a burp that almost called for a cleanup on Lane 5.
The same could be said of Phelps.
But the studly swimmer wasn’t done yet as he also helped Team USA earn gold in the 4×200 men’s relay! What happened four years ago is still with me.
Where Bowman knew a week before the Olympics he would put Phelps in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay, he did not decide to put him on the 4×200 team until Monday night. His second event to win gold in was the 200 meter butterfly.
Ryan Lochte: “Jeah, I know”. It made sense for Lilly King.
History will show that Phelps 20th Medal was not won in a particularly fast time, certainly not when one considers the times in London 4 years ago, but there has hardly been a more openly fought and anticipated show down.
RATINGS: NBC said its Olympic audience reached parity with the London Games for the first time on the third night of competition – with an asterisk.
Phelps’ body hurt all over as the relay neared.
Phelps’ response? “There are a lot of things I could say”.
Phelps also anchored the victorious 800-meter freestyle team to run his record medal total to 25 – 21 of them gold. The attention to Phelps and his South African rival before a semifinal race the previous night – look, the oddball is shadow-boxing in the waiting area! – was soap operatic.
Meanwhile, Ranomi Kromowidjojo of the Netherlands will try to defend her sprint title.
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If he feels greedy, there is more potential gold for Phelps in the 100m fly and the 200m individual medley – events he has incredibly won at the past three Olympics. More, Lochte moved into a tie with Jenny Thompson, Dara Torres and Natalie Coughlin for second on the all-time Olympic-medal list in the sport.
