Le Clos was in the final again, thoroughly inspired himself by his mother and father, both battling cancer and in the stands cheering him on.
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What winning 20 Olympic gold medals must feel like.
Hungary’s 19-year-old Tamas Kenderesi surpassed his veteran teammate Cseh to clinch a superb bronze medal in 1:53.62, with Le Clos fading to fourth, more than a half-a-body length behind Phelps in a time of 1:54.06.
Cseh began to fade, with Le Clos moving into second at the 150 metre-mark but the South African could not match Phelps in the final lap, with the American punching the air in delight after stepping out.
Phelps swam for his life in the event, finishing with a time of 1:53.36, just 0.04 seconds faster than Japan’s Masato Sakai, who won silver.
“That was a really tough race and it hurt really badly”, Ledecky said. “I’m just so glad I got my hand on the wall first and it was all worth it”. She crushed the world record in the 400 and everyone expects her to do the same in the 800. Once I was ahead I knew I wasn’t going to let it out of my hands.
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He still has four events remaining in his swan song Olympics: the 800 freestyle relay on Tuesday; the 200 individual medley Wednesday and Thursday; the 100 butterfly Thursday and Friday; and a leg on the US medley relay Saturday. Among Phelps’ (31 years, 41 days old) other accomplishments on the night, he became the oldest swimmer to win an individual gold medal in Olympic history (Netherlands’ Inge de Bruijn was 30 years, 363 days old in 2004), and he’s now the first athlete to win multiple gold medals in four different Olympic games.
