Phelps added that there was no chance he could be coaxed out of retirement for the Tokyo 2020 Games.
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Four days later, Rose was standing on the top of the podium with a gold medal draped around his neck.
In a historic race, Michael Phelps brought down the curtain on his glittering Olympic career when he helped the United States of America win 4x100m medley relay gold at the Rio Games on Saturday, taking his personal tally to 23. “I think he wants 25 golds and he’s got 23”.
“I felt very inspired this week, for sure”, he said. “So he’s already eyeing them up”.
Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time, South Africa’s Chad le Chlos and Laszlo Cseh of Hungary shared a three-way tie for silver. An upset in the women’s 100-meter sprint denied Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce bid to become the first woman to win a track gold in three consecutive Olympics. “This is it. I said it before, but you guys can say, this is the last time”. I am retiring, this is it.
Phelps is more aware of his place in history, too.
Most of the United States swim team was in the stands to watch Phelps finale, including the biggest female star of the games, Katie Ledecky, decked out in a matching U.S. white jacket and cap. “Only the athletes who have played at an Olympic Games know how it is like”. “I think that’s why it was so special for both of us”. “Now, he wanted to wrap it up knowing he gave it everything”.
Phelps’ emotional investment was evident as the meet unfolded over the past week. But he still couldn’t have imagined such a golden medal haul.
Not five, including revenge in the 200 fly and a two-second victory over a star-studded field in the 200 IM. “I couldn’t be happier with the way things ended”.
12,000 – The calories Phelps was consuming daily to fuel his training in 2008. Last warm-down. Check.
With the women’s 4×100 medley relay team also winning gold, it was another satisfying night for the American team at the end of another productive week. The moment called for a splash of sentimentality, even with a race on the line.
The U.S. basketball players tried to get a wave going and started a “U-S-A!” chant when they were shown on the venue video board.
“What Joseph Schooling did will be remembered not just years from now, but decades, far beyond this generation”, said Straits Times sports editor Marc Lim on the decision to print the posters. “But that might have been thrown out there”.
It was there in the Team USA carpool karaoke beforehand, it was there in the manner in which he celebrated his first relay gold in Rio and it was even there in finishing second to Schooling. Breaststroker Cody Miller followed, eventually ceding a bit of ground to Britain’s phenomenal Adam Peaty. In Rio she was the third-ranked US gymnast, so she didn’t qualify for the all-around finals.
King won the 100-meter breaststroke Monday night by more than half a second over Efimova.
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“To do it in one of the most-watched races in the history of swimming, Michael’s last race – that’s something I am going to cherish forever”, Murphy said of the 51.85 seconds he swam to eclipse Peirsol’s 51.94 set in the bodysuit era in 2009. He also wants to help grow the sport of swimming, a sport that Phelps himself has done more than anyone else to make more popular than ever before.
