However, the Team USA flagbearer has a fight on his hands for another gold after triumphing in the 4x100m relay in the early hours of Monday, with Kenderesi’s finish time a whole second faster than Phelps’s, at 1:54.73.
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The next day Phelps responded with a faster time. Clearly, none of this bothered Phelps in the slightest, and it set us up for a rematch on Tuesday night for the elusive gold medal.
Ledecky was second in the semifinals behind Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom, gold medalist in the 100 butterfly. I was trying not to even look at him.
The battle of wills continued out on the deck, as Le Clos did not take his eyes off Phelps for the entire run-up to the race.
“I’m going step by step towards the final”, Pellegrini said, “but I think it’s going to be the fastest 200m in history”.
Le Clos, a long-time fan of Muhammad Ali who once shadow-boxed during a media interview after a race at the 2013 world championships, explained that was who he was. The two were friendly then, with the American saying he wanted to visit South Africa and go shark-diving with Le Clos’s help.
Le Clos will compete in the heats this afternoon (6.39pm SA time) with the semifinals scheduled for late in the night (3.16am tomorrow SA time).
Vintage Michael Phelps remains a thing of beauty.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – When Michael Phelps made a decision to come out of retirement, he circled one race in particular on the Olympic schedule.
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“You’re probably going to see a lot of people speaking up more”, Phelps said. “Hopefully I’ll get home and get a quick nap in and be ready for tonight”. It’s sad that today in sports in general, not just only swimming, there are people who are testing positive who are allowed back in the sport – and multiple times.
