The superstar American, in what is expected to be his last final against countryman Lochte, surged to victory by two seconds on Thursday.
Advertisement
American Michael Phelps holds up four figures to signify the number of times in a row he has won the Olympic men’s 200-meter individual medley during the medals presentation Thursday night in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
At each of those, Lochte has won a medal behind Phelps, but he finished fifth this time around after fading terribly on the final leg.
The American now has 21 Olympic gold medals and 25 in total. Campbell, incredibly, finished outside of the medals in fourth.
The world record holder, who won the event as a fresh-faced 15-year-old in London, is the overwhelming favourite after storming to victory in the 200 and 400m before adding gold in Wednesday’s 4x200m free relay. Michael Phelps (USA) of USA poses with his gold medal.
In the same room, there’s also an oversized blue beach towel I got Michael Phelps to sign after he returned Stateside in August 2008, after capturing an historic, flawless eight gold medals: “To Rachel”. But the American remains unbeaten in finals at the 2016 Games, winning his fourth gold in the 200m individual medley in 1min 54.66sec. The summer going into eighth grade, Phelps swept the medleys in Athens and Lochte earned silver in the 200m IM behind him.
This time, she was limited to a single gold, which came for swimming the preliminaries of the 4×200 freestyle relay.
“The week has gone good so far, and I think I’ll be able to top it off well in the 800”, she said.
“Obviously in the first swim I needed to take care of business and then whatever I can do in the second one just to make it through is what I’ll do tonight”.
Advertisement
Japan’s Rie Kaneto took gold in the women’s 200-meter breaststroke final after edging out Russia’s Yulia Efimova. “But I was really pleased with today’s medal and the one that came before it because looking back at what happened to me over that time, it’s a big step”. Shi Jinglin claimed bronze for China. Phelps will race in the semifinal of the 100m butterfly about 30 minutes after exiting the pool from the 200m IM.
