American swimmer Michael Phelps is a stroke from the wall in the 200-meter butterfly and his nemesis, South Africa’s Chad le Clos is behind, mid-stroke, looking directly at Phelps, the man who is about to beat him for the gold medal.
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Though he managed to win six medals in London, four of them gold, he had not trained to his standards, had not been as engaged in the pursuit as he was in 2004 and 2008, when he became an Olympic legend.
“Where I am now is exactly where I want to finish my career”, Phelps marveled. It’s the family aspect of the equation that Phelps seemed content with the most Monday morning during his interview on NBC.
He said his recovery was completed in May with the birth of his son, Boomer.
“I might let him take one for show and tell”, he said at a second press conference on Saturday. “It’s insane. This is how I wanted to finish my career”. “I knew this was the last time, the last race I’d ever have, the last Olympics I’d ever have”.
Stanford swimmer Simone Manuel shared the gold medal with sixteen-year old Canadian Penny Oleksiak in a 100-meter freestyle final that shocked the swimming world.
Michael Phelps captured his 23rd and – he claims – final Olympic gold medal on 13 August as the United States of America sealed a week of terrific performances in the pool by winning the men’s and women’s medley relays.
Basking in the glow of four gold medals, Katie Ledecky joined TODAY to talk about her experience in Rio.
“This is it. This is the last time you’ll ever see me racing in the water”.
The above photo demonstrates Phelps’ impact on the sport of swimming. “Italian people really wanted this gold and it was more hard than I expected”.
“I’m in the best place possible with everything that’s going on in my life”.
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As NPR points out, if Phelps was not a person but a country competing in Rio, he would have more gold medals than all but 32 of the 205 countries present, and that includes medal tallies from the summer AND winter games. I am very happy I came back.
