Michael Phelps is back, folks!
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With challengers all around, he simply wouldn’t be denied.
Being the 20th gold of his career only added to the satisfaction.
Masato Sakai of Japan threatened to come from behind to upset the American, finishing four one-hundredths of a second behind in second.
“Getting a medal is always the most thrilling, exciting, wonderful thing you can do at an Olympics”.
The stills came from a video of Phelps seated behind South African swimmer Chad Le Clos, a rival who beat Phelps to take the gold at the London Games in this very event.
On Tuesday night, he’ll get a chance to make amends against the South African.
After his 200 fly, he had a little swagger in his celebration.
Right before the race, Phelps sat on the sidelines with his hood up and really stared the shit out of Le Clos.
Daiya Seto of Japan wound up a surprising silver medal victor while Tamas Kenderesi of Hungary won the bronze.
Michael Phelps now has 25 medals in all – and three more races in Rio to add to his nearly unimaginable total.
Remarkably, Phelps has won more than twice as many Olympic gold medals as the athlete second on the list, former Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina, who has nine. Simone Biles, three-time world champion in the individual all-around, Laurie Hernandez and Madison Kocian are all first-time Olympic gold medalists.
With a victory on Friday in the 800-meter freestyle, where she is a heavy favorite, Ledecky will match Meyer.
Fifth at the first flip turn, Ledecky powered to the front on the third lap and grittily held off a hard-charging Sjostrom coming to the wall.
Ledecky touched in 1:53.73.
In all major global long-course competition, he has won a total of 78 medals including 62 gold, 13 silver, and 3 bronze spanning the Olympics, the World, and the Pan Pacific Championships.
World-record holder Federica Pelligrini of Italy was fourth. “Chad liked me, and then he didn’t like me”, Phelps said.
When asked about the kind of atmosphere the audience produce why he is on the block, he said, “On the block I thought my heart was going to explode, I was so hyped, so excited”. It’s always good to get in the water and race him. “I took it out pretty fast and kind of forced everybody to try to do that”. I know a lot of clean athletes, banned just because of Russian Federation.
The Americans led throughout, with Conor Dwyer handing over to Townley Haas and Ryan Lochte.
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The victory Tuesday night was definitive for Phelps.
