Phelps blew away Ryan Lochte – and everyone else, for that matter – to win his fourth gold medal of the Rio Olympics and 22nd overall with a victory in the 200-meter individual medley Thursday night.
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It has to be weird being around Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte as an acquaintance or teammate of the duo who have been swimming with and against each other in worldwide competition for over a decade now.
Phelps, now with 26 Olympic medals, 22 of them gold, is laying claim to so many Olympic superlatives that he is re-writing the record books from a time before record books. The trio engaged in trash talk last summer after the World Championships when Phelps was swimming at U.S. Nationals after being suspended by USA Swimming for his second DUI arrest. “But winning four in a row, when the announcer said that I had a really hard time pulling it together”.
It means everything to him to be “able to finish how I want to”, he said, adding, “Being able to put in the work and put my body through the pain it’s going through every single race, it’s special”.
“My goal was to win one gold”, Murphy said. Halfway through the IM, after 50 meters of back, Lochte took over – barely – with a.01 lead on Phelps and Pereira.
Then the afterburners came and the world stepped back and dropped its jaw as Phelps upped his speed and started to take over. He emerged from his final turn with a burst and pop, his freestyle kick pulled him away. The distance was striking. “Michael Phelps might not even make the podium”.
Nobody saw this coming.
It was quite a night for the powerful American team, which picked up two more golds.
Phelps, who clocked in at 51.58 seconds, will be in Lane 2 for the final as he looks to settle a debate with Hungary’s Laszlo Cseh and South Africa’s Chad le Clos about who is now the top 100-meter butterflier in the world.
The Barcelona Games were the last time the United States lost a men’s final in those events. It’s a weird dichotomy to those of us who spend so much time watching team sports, growing up with the “There’s no “I” in team” mantra.
“That hurt a lot.my body is in pain, my legs are hurting, I’m exhausted”. He might do it nine out of ten times, but when you’re a competitor, the kind that eclipses all medal records like Phelps has, you want ten for ten.
This was the signature night of Phelps’ career, which is saying something, because he’s had a half-dozen classics over the past three Olympics.
He’ll go for his sixth gold medal of these games in that 100-meter fly on Friday night. There is an I in swimming, and that’s been Phelps for all of these years.
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“Finally, he’s going to do it”.
