That allowed Chad le Clos of South Africa to stunningly win gold in an event that Phelps had dominated for the better part of a decade.
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Britain’s Stephen Milne, Duncan Scott, Dan Wallace and James Guy took silver, 2.47sec behind the U.S., and Japan’s Kosuke Hagino, Naito Ehara, Yuki Kobori and Takeshi Matsuda pocketed bronze, 2.84sec further back.
Phelps began the evening by avenging 24-year-old Le Clos’ victory over him at London 2012.
The race had been billed as a grudge match between Phelps and his London Olympic conqueror Le Clos, but instead it was Sakai who posed the biggest threat with a final-50-meter time that was nearly a full second faster than Phelps’.
Only 70 minutes later, after finding time to give his baby son Boomer a cuddle at poolside following his victory ceremony, Phelps had a much less demanding task to anchor the US men’s relay quartet, starting off with a 10m lead following fine work from Conor Dwyer, Townley Haas and Ryan Lochte.
Phelps’ two gold medals Tuesday gave him 21 golds overall including nine relay golds, both of which are Olympic records. He’s the only male swimmer to win an individual Olympic event three times.
Katie Ledecky is two for two in gold medal races for the Americans.
“What happened four years ago really stuck with me”, Phelps said Tuesday night.
“The 200 is a much more stressful race than the 400 and 800, and it always just feels good when it’s over”, she said. He took the lead at the halfway mark and had le Clos covered from the start.
But as for Phelps’ insistence that this will be his final Olympic appearance, Lochte has made his doubts known: “I honestly don’t think this is going to be his last Olympics”.
But nothing could beat Tuesday night’s dramatic action in the pool, with Hosszu completing the individual medley double by winning the 200m final in an Olympic best 2:06.58.
Phelps returned later in the night to win the 21st gold of his career.
In London, Phelps miss-timed his touch on the 200 meter butterfly, and le Clos took home gold.
Conor Dwyer, Townley Haas and Ryan Lochte went out ahead of Phelps, handing off a commanding lead to the most decorated athlete in Olympic history.
Lloyd Burnard is Sport24’s correspondent in Rio de Janeiro for the duration of the 2016 Olympics.
At the other end of Olympic Park, the USA women’s gymnastics team captured a second straight gold with a high-flying and dominating performance.
Katinka Hosszu is having quite an Olympics, too.
“I came into the pool on a mission and the mission was accomplished, but the last 10 meters were not fun”.
He did not realise the small margin of victory – just 0.04secs from Japan’s Masato Sakai.
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SCORING ON SOLO: Catalina Usme beat USA goalie Hope Solo on a pair of free kicks to draw Colombia to a 2-2 tie with the United States.
