Michael Phelps of the United States of America reacts during the men’s 200m individual medley semifinal of swimming at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on August 10, 2016.
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Phelps has by far the most of any Olympic athlete and is the only one to win eight golds at a single Games, an achievement that earned much fanfare plus a $1 million bonus in Beijing in 2008.
Katie Ledecky strikes a familiar pose – she has three gold medals after her victory with the women’s 4×200-meter freestyle team on Wednesday night.
“It’s going to take a flawless performance in order to beat him, just because of how tough of a competitor he is”, Lochte said.
Both Phelps and Ledecky have already won gold in Rio, but they’re hoping to add to their respective treasure trove as the world watches.
The two most decorated male swimmers of all time will close the book on their storied rivalry.
Balandin pulled himself onto a lane rope and whipped his arms in the air, savoring his historic achievement.
“I feel great about getting another medal”, said Adrian, who barely advanced out of the preliminaries.
“It’s good consistency, I guess”, she said nonchalantly. While Phelps owns the past three Olympic crowns and three world titles, Lochte has won the past four world championships and is the world-record holder at 1:54.00.
Lochte, a year older, has 12 Olympic medals, six of them gold, and the 200 IM is his only individual event in Rio after taking gold alongside Phelps in Tuesday’s 4×200 freestyle relay. The teenager is also the youngest Olympic gold medalist in that event since 17-year-old Jorg Woithe of East Germany at the 1980 Moscow Games.
On the sixth night of swimming in Rio de Janeiro, the Campbell sisters seek the same golden prize in the women’s 100 freestyle.
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To add insult to injury Le Clos looked up to the results on the big screen showing Masato Sakai of Japan and Hungary’s Tamas Kenderesi ahead of him in second and third place respectively. Leah Smith, who won the bronze medal in the 400 free on Sunday night, and battled with Australia in the final 50. She also anchored the USA 4x100m free relay team to silver behind Australia.
