United States’ Michael Phelps celebrates winning the gold medal in the men’s 200-meter butterfly during the swimming competitions at the 2016 Summer Olympics, Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Haas’ split time tied for the fifth fastest in history.
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Phelps won the 200m butterfly and was part of the USA’s victorious 4 x 200m freestyle team.
It shows a 21-year-old Phelps donning a Detroit Tigers hat signing autographs for young eager fans, including the future gold medalist herself. His adorable son, Boomer, also one-upped his now-viral game face.
“What happened four years ago is still with me”, he said, a thought that was clear to see at Monday’s semi-finals when Le Clos shadow-boxed and Phelps stared at him with such menace it caused a social media storm.
Katie Ledecky, leading the new generation of American swimming stars, captured her second gold of the Games by holding off Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom to take the women’s 200m freestyle final in 1:53.73.
Like I said, Phelps wasn’t having ANY of that this time around.
For Phelps, the butterfly victory was especially sweet after the sting of the London defeat, where he misjudged his final lunge for the wall to let Le Clos steal the gold medal.
Le Clos, who won the 200m butterfly in London in 2012, finished outside the medals in fourth place in Tuesday night’s (Wednesday morning SA time) race in Rio. It was Phelps’ 21st gold medal while Dwyer picked up his second to go along with a bronze he won Tuesday.
Between Phelps, Ledecky and Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu, the pool provided some of the most electric moments of the Olympics so far. “And if I did, I was leaving everything in the pool”. That event was my bread and butter.
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Phelps, who has 25 medals in all, said after his latest win: “That’s a lot of medals, it’s just insane”.
