Michael Phelps won two more finals to take his historic all-time record load to 21 golds and cement his legendary status.
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In the end, though, the man who is statistically the greatest Olympian of all time in terms of medals proved that he is the ultimate champion in winning his 20th gold medal as he reclaimed the title he won in Athens in 2004 and Beijing four years later. But tennis star Serena Williams crashed out of what could be her final Games.
Late Tuesday, he beat Japan’s Masato Sakai to take the 200m butterfly and then anchored the United States 4x200m freestyle relay team to victory.
Celebrating a win that followed his erstwhile retirement after the London Games and a renewed quest for Olympic glory at age 31, Phelps held his arms out in the water, asking the crowd to make noise – a request many had no trouble obliging, after watching him hold on for a thrilling win. This was the event in which Phelps endured one of the most painful defeats of his career: At the 2012 London Games, Chad le Clos of South Africa edged him by five-hundredths of a second.
Soon after winning the relay, cameras caught Phelps motioning his hand from one side of his neck to the other, and seemed to say, “I’m done”.
“Michael Phelps has been talking about how slow the butterfly events have been recently”, the South African said. It was a frustrating race for me. “I came into the pool tonight on a mission, and it was mission accomplished”.
It means that, if Phelps were a country, he would rank 39th equal with Ethiopia in the all-time Olympic gold medal table.
She had previously won the 400 meter individual medley on Saturday and the 100 meter backstroke Monday.
“Now I’m looking forward to rest of the week – I am not even halfway done yet”, he said.
She is aiming for an unprecedented five titles this week.
“I saw the red lamp come on when I touched the wall but I didn’t know which position I finished in”, said the 21-year-old Sakai.
Just a day after the US women’s team won the gold in the team finals, the men’s team will compete in the final round of the individual all-around event. Well, according to The New York Times, his “pre-race playlist” includes “a mix of songs from Eminem, Young Jeezy and a more recent addition, Eric Church”.
“It was a great opportunity”.
The 200 fly was the one he really wanted, and it showed. He is likely to have seven more races and several more gold medals.
But the studly swimmer wasn’t done yet as he also helped Team USA earn gold in the 4×200 men’s relay! French hero Astier Nicolas also took a silver in the individual event behind Germany’s Michael Jung. World-record holder Federica Pelligrini of Italy was fourth.
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Meanwhile, a bus carrying journalists between Olympic venues in Rio de Janeiro has had two windows smashed, after stones were thrown at it last evening.
