“His gold medals and world records were officially rescinded when Michael Phelps tied him to a lane line and pantsed him in the Rio Olympic pool”, posted one user.
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While Phelps won the 200-meter butterfly and the USA team took gold in the 4×200 meter freestyle relay, Katie Ledecky claimed her second title of the Games.
[Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images] The gold medal captured in the men’s 4×200 relay is the fourth for the US men’s swim team.
After the medal ceremony, Phelps rushed to the crowd and kissed his fiancée. That event was my bread and butter.
“Having that come to an end is weird, it’s insane to think about”. I came into the pool tonight with a mission and the mission was accomplished. And, if I did, every ounce that I had was left in the pool.
World record-holder Phelps, who won the title in 2004 and 2008, celebrated by pointing to the ceiling and pumping his fists, gesturing to the crowd to “bring the noise” after becoming the oldest individual gold medallist in Olympic swimming history at 31.
Britain’s Stephen Milne, Duncan Scott, Dan Wallace and James Guy took silver, 2.47sec behind the US, and Japan’s Kosuke Hagino, Naito Ehara, Yuki Kobori and Takeshi Matsuda pocketed bronze, 2.84sec further back.
But the South African could only manage fourth this time, also finishing behind Tamas Kenderesi of Hungary.
Le Clos was rightly heartbroken as he looked up at the clock to see where he had finished and realised he had missed out on a medal, but after letting Phelps take it all in – the American put up his finger to show that he was No 1 – Le Clos went over to give his great rival a big hug and extend his congratulations. I knew where he was all the time. “The last 10 meters were not fun, oh my gosh”.
“I told Bob (Bowman, his coach) when I came back how bad I wanted that 200m fly”, added Phelps, who puffed his cheeks out on the podium, trying to contain his emotions.
Katie Ledecky of the United States won her second gold medal of the meeting and Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu her third, extending their dominance of women’s swimming in feats that on any other day would have grabbed top billing.
Phelps, who the 200m butterfly final less than an hour earlier, swum the final leg of the race to loud cheers from the packed arena. “I wanted to hold him longer”, Phelps said of his baby boy. “If I have three golds, it’s pretty unreal”.
The 27-year-old touched the wall in an Olympic record time of 2:06.58, three tenths of a second ahead of Britain’s Siobhan-Marie O’Connor at the at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium.
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Elsewhere in the pool, Katie Ledecky of the US came out on top of her clash of the titans with Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom, winning the women’s 200 freestyle final in 1:53.73. The American phenom, who won the 400m title with a stunning world record on day two, clocked 1:53.73 to win by 0.35 seconds from Sjostrom with Australia’s Emma Mckeon taking bronze in 1:54.92.
