Within a few hours, the #PhelpsFace meme was all over social media. Le Clos in Lane 6. The gold in the 200 fly was the 20th of his career, the gold in the relay his 21st, and by now pointing out this is a record doesn’t fully convey its enormity. And then raised two index fingers in the air.
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It was South Africa’s le Clos who pipped him to gold in London, inflicting a shock defeat on the American who had won the event in 2004 and 2008.
Fifth at the first flip turn, a bit faster than she usually goes out, Ledecky powered to the front on the third lap and feistily fended off a hard-charging Sjostrom coming to the wall.
The oldest individual gold medalist in Olympic swimming history at 31, Phelps celebrated by hugging baby son Boomer after taking in the adulation of a raucous crowd. He got misty-eyed on the medal podium as the national anthem played and the American flag rose up the flagpole.
And Phelps wasn’t done for the night. He has one more race Tuesday night, anchoring the USA team in the 4×200-meter freestyle relay. They led at every split. One gold, three silver and one bronze.
The Stanford-bound19-year-old turned in another overpowering performance to carry the United States to victory in the 4×200-meter freestyle relay late Wednesday, capturing her third gold and fourth medal overall at the Rio Olympics. “I can not wait to see what he will do the rest of the week”. He won twice [Tuesday night]. Phelps announced his retirement after the 2012 Olympics. “This is a race I really wanted back”.
In 2014, he announced he was returning to the sport.
Hali Flickinger will swim in the 200-meter butterfly. In May 2015, he said he would compete in the event because the other swimmers’ times “are really not that fast”.
That did not sit well with le Clos. “Next year is going to be Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier”.
Phelps’ response? “There are a lot of things I could say. But I won’t. I’m going to let what I do in the pool do my talking”. His father, Bert, whose animated interviews made him a media favorite in London, has prostate cancer and underwent surgery last month.
Ledecky held off Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom to win gold in the 200-meter freestyle Tuesday night at the Rio Olympics. He admittedly did not train as well as he did leading into previous Games, and though the Baltimore native left with four more gold medals in men’s swimming, the two races he didn’t win lingered after the fact.
Ledecky touched in 1:53.73.
Ledecky turned in a split of 1 minute, 53.74 seconds, which was almost 2 1-2 seconds faster than her next-fastest teammate, Allison Schmitt in 1:56.21. Australia’s Emma McKeon took the bronze.
So far these Games, Ledecky is 2-for-2 in individual events.
The 19-year-old from suburban Washington DC burst onto the global scene with her 800m free triumph in London four years ago, and has steadily expanded her range.
“That was a really tough race and it hurt really badly”, Ledecky said. “I’m pretty sure it’s the closest I’ve come to throwing up in the middle of a race”.
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“The 200 is a much more stressful race than the 400 and 800, and it always just feels good when it’s over”, she said. “I took it out pretty fast and kind of forced everybody to try to do that”.
