Phelps lost the top spot on the Olympic podium for the first time ever in the Men’s 100m butterfly event – and for the first time during his incredible run in Rio.
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Astonishingly, all three had touched out in 51.14 seconds, behind Schooling’s Olympic record 50.39 in the second dead-heat in a final in two days.
Phelps, who had already won four golds in Rio, was one of three men to finish joint second: Chad Le Clos, Laszlo Cseh and Phelps shared the silver medal.
The only other three-way tie for Games silver came back in 1968, in the women’s speedskating 500m.
“It’s wild”, said Phelps. I’m in a better state of mind this time than I was four years ago.
The tie with Phelps was the closest Cseh has come to the U.S. star in Olympic competition.
Meanwhile, South African Brad Tandy almost caused a massive upset in the 50m freestyle final soon after Le Clos’ race as he blasted out of the blocks to take the lead for the first 25 metres. He praised Schooling, 21, whose victory on Friday was a major upset.
“That’s for you bro, don’t look at me”, Phelps told him.
“I’m ready to retire and I’m happy about it”, said Phelps, looking forward to marrying girlfriend Nicole Johnson later this year and spending more time with his baby son Boomer, who was in Rio to watch his dad race.
“I’m excited just to see how much faster he goes”, Phelps told reporters about Schooling.
“If it wasn’t for Michael, I don’t think I could have gotten to this point”.
Phelps shot back: “It’s a pretty good one to win, though”.
It was special, indeed: With a time of 8:04.79, Ledecky obliterated her own Olympic record of 8:12.86 (set in a qualifying heat in Rio), and took her world record down by nearly two seconds.
Schooling, meanwhile, was absorbing the enormity of his first. “I’m full of emotions now”, he said.
The 19-year-old is the first Olympian since Debbie Meyer in 1968 to win the 200m, 400m and 800m free titles in one Games.
“This moment is not about me, it’s all about my coaches my friends my family that believed that when I was a six year old kid that I could do it”, he said.
American Anthony Ervin won gold in the men’s 50m free – 16 years after tying for gold in the same event in Sydney with teammate Gary Hall jr. Veteran sprinter Nathan Adrian took bronze.
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He has won four golds and a silver in Rio so far, taking his tally to 22 golds, and is not finished completely yet even if Friday was his last individual race. DiRado’s time of 2:05.99 beat Hosszu by just 0.06 seconds.
