Japan’s Rie Kaneto won the gold medal in the women’s 200 breaststroke, edging out controversial Russian Yulia Efimova, who won her second silver of the Games. Lochte led early, but slipped down the stretch and finished fifth.
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Both Phelps, 31, and Lochte, 32, are expected to perform well in the event finals.
Commonwealth champion Proud, 22, swam a time of 21.54 seconds to qualify fifth fastest for Friday’s final (02:44 BST Saturday).
As close as it gets: Michael Phelps won his seventh gold medal in Beijing in a miracle come-from-behind finish that could be said to be his greatest race.
Striking gold: Michael Phelps won his first gold medal at the Athens games when he was 19 years old.
“To think I could be that idol for some kid who is trying to do this is really cool”, he added, as the Americans finished day six with 11 swimming golds, a whopping eight clear of Australia and Hungary.
“But at the same time, I love a challenge, and that’s why I do the events that I do and going up against him is a challenge”.
Le Clos trailed in third after 50 metres, but managed to claw his way back to second in 51.43, and will be glad to have returned to the water and get a good swim under his belt after all the drama of the 200m butterfly. Phelps had previously said that the 2012 London Olympics would be his last, but he came out of retirement in 2014 and went on to easily secure a spot on Team USA once again. But he and Lochte are known to be friends, and their roommate in Rio, Conor Dwyer, said yesterday that from the way Phelps and Lochte act around each other, he would never guess that these roomies are also perennially vying for swimming glory.
Two women’s freestyle golds were handed out on Thursday after Canada’s Penny Oleksiak and Simone Manuel of the United States recorded the same time. Who’s to say this superhuman athlete won’t give it one more shot?
Phelps claimed his 22nd Olympic gold medal and his fourth at the Rio Olympics.
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Murphy hit the wall in 1 minute 53.62 seconds, 0.34sec ahead of Australia’s Mitchell Larkin. “The rivalry that we’ve created and that friendship, I’m definitely going to cherish it for the rest of my life”. Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom took the bronze medal in 52.99.
