With four gold medals at these games and 22 for his career, Phelps has an opportunity to pick up one more before he leaves Rio. That is the easy tale that will be told as long as the Olympics are around.
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Despite teammate Ryan Lochte’s inkling that Phelps would be back in four years for Tokyo, the 27-time medalist says he’s done after Rio.
PHELPS: No more. I – this is it.
The most dominant performance of the entire week, however, was delivered by the prodigious American teenager Katie Ledecky.
The 19-year-old from suburban Washington capped off one of the greatest performances in Olympic history with her fourth gold medal and second world record, shattering her own mark in the 800-meter freestyle Friday night.
Jazz Carlin’s new-found confidence propelled her to a second Olympic medal in Rio. She is the future of swimming.
We’ll let Ledecky take it from there. He was a swimming prodigy who moved to the United States at 13 to train in Florida.
France’s Florent Manaudou, the defending champion, finished second just 0.01 seconds behind the 35-year-old veteran, who won in 21.40 seconds.
Schooling was inspired to aim for the Olympics as a six-year-old after a dinner conversation with his grand-uncle, Lloyd Valberg, a former national high-jumper who was also Singapore’s first Olympian.
“In some ways”, she said.
“I just wanted to make this meet count”. That’s what I wanted to do. “I saw it right before I left for the session tonight so I’m just so proud to be a part of that history”.
Phelps quickly swam over to congratulate Schooling, who seemed stunned by what he had done. “It’s an honor and privilege to even race alongside him”.
Athletes naturally progress over time, getting better and better, radically so as training and diets have become more scientific and precise the last 30 or so years. The answer was the same for everyone.
“In the past, I probably would have been really, really upset if I lost a race”, Phelps said. “I’m standing by that”.
“I have been feeling a bit rough for a couple of days, so to come away with a silver medal is an incredible feeling”. I didn’t want to have a what-if 20 years later.
“What she’s doing in the sport is ridiculous”.
Anthony Ervin, the oldest USA man to swim an individual event in the Olympics since 1904, edged France’s Florent Manaudou at the finish, 21.40 seconds to 21.41. Le Clos suggested they hold hands before they ascend the podium, and so they did, pride aside and smiles abundant.
The American reeled in Hungary’s “Iron Lady” in the last 50 metres, and the pair, swimming in adjacent lanes, were neck and neck until DiRado touched first to win by six-hundredths of a second. Since then, she’s shaved more than nine seconds off it, leaving her rivals trailing in her wake. And I think, you know, a lot of this, like – is because of Michael.
Schooling felt the sincerity.
“The Olympics are the pinnacle of our sport and I have to wait another four years to have that moment and I just wanted to enjoy it”, Ledecky said. And here they were on this night, one career coming to an end, another blowing up in the most positive sense of the word.
This was being knighted by the king, being kissed by the don, being accepted into a fraternity that will continue to grow even without Phelps in the pool.
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United States’ Michael Phelps shows his gold medal for the men’s 200-meter individual medley to the media during the swimming competitions at the 2016 Summer Olympics, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
