USA’s Michael Phelps displays his national flag during the medal ceremony for the men’s 4 x 100-metre medley relay final on Sunday night, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. If I hadn’t had come back, I wouldn’t have know what to do with myself and would have been frustrated with myself for not giving myself a chance. Murphy broke Aaron Peirsol’s 6-year-old world record in the 100m backstroke during his lead-off leg, clocking 51.85 and shaving 0.09 off the old record. When Phelps, the most decorated Olympian ever, said he was going to retire after the 2012 Olympics, it was Lochte who predicted Phelps would come back. Historically, the USA men have won gold in this event every time they’ve entered, dating back to the event’s debut in 1960.
Advertisement
This was his fifth Olympic Games appearance. At 31 years old, it’s undeniable that he hit a career peak at the Beijing Games eight years ago, and Phelps himself admitted that he wasn’t sure how successful he’d be at defending his Olympic titles until he took home a familiar gold medal in the 200m butterfly.
Ledecky who already has three gold medals and one silver at the Rio Games, posted a time of 8:12.86 in topping the preliminary heats. I don’t want to miss a thing.
“No, I’m done”, he said. Following a DUI arrest and his time in rehab in 2014, as well as the rekindling of his relationship with Nicole Johnson and the birth of their son Boomer, however, Phelps came back stronger and more focused than ever.
“I knew that was it”, Phelps said. “It brought a tear to my eye, just because he hasn’t seen me in a while and it was so cool to see him smiling back at me and laughing and giggling”.
“That’s something that I’m really, really looking forward to, being able to watch him grow up”, Phelps said. “I want to help these guys as much as I can”.
Advertisement
“When I got out of the warm-up pool for the last time to get ready to go up to the blocks, I have the white shoes that I wore pretty much every finals”, Phelps told ABC News’ T.J. Holmes Monday. “I don’t want to miss anything”. It was the best closure to last night that I could possibly imagine.
