Phelps won eight medals in his third Olympics, no one else on this list won more than six in their third Olympics.
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August 2016: Phelps and le Clos meet again in Rio, where spectators are equally bemused as they are intrigued by le Clos shadow boxing and dancing before the preliminary race as Phelps glowered in a corner, giving us the meme of the Olympic games, heretofore referred to as #PhelpsFace.
Phelps, who had announced his retirement after London but launched a comeback in 2014, then celebrated by climbing into the stands to embrace his fiancee Nicole and kiss his baby son Boomer.
After two shutout victories, the heavily favored Americans were expecting to pick up a third win against Colombia.
“Coming into Rio I didn’t have any Olympic medals so I would have been okay with any colour”, she said. He was tipped to be one of Phelps’s main rivals going into the tournament.
Katie Ledecky won a gold medal in the women’s 200-meter freestyle at the Summer Olympics Tuesday, in a race that was close – but not as close as the one Michael Phelps swam in the 200-meter butterfly to win his 20th gold medal. It makes me think about how hard Katie LeDecky has clearly been working for the last 10 years and how she so richly deserves to see her hard work pay off. “Everything I’ve asked him to do, he’s been really good at, way better than before trials”.
“That being my very first Olympic event, to be able to win it at my fifth Olympics is pretty special”. A lung-bursting event that most swimmers hate, it has always been his favourite race, but one in which he still thought he had a point to prove.
August 2015: After winning the 100-meter fly at the 2015 FINA World Championships, Le Clos had choice words about Phelps.
“I want what’s best for this team”, Franklin said.
The teammates have long credited each other for upping the ante in the pool, with Phelps saying after the July trials that “we bring each other to a different level”.
Le Clos, whose preparation for the Games has largely been overshadowed by the news that both of his parents were diagnosed with cancer, just missed out in fourth.
For his butterfly final, Phelps was called to the starting blocks just moments after Ledecky’s win. It was a burp with 25 to go but I’ve been in that position plenty of times in practice and knew I could accelerate to the wall.
Defending women’s tennis gold medalist Serena Williams saw her repeat hopes come to an early and surprising end as she got bounced in straight sets by Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina in the Round of 16.
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“There wasn’t a shot in hell I was losing that race and if I did I was leaving everything in the pool”.
