Michael Phelps just won his 22nd Olympic gold medal, besting the competition in the men’s 200-meter individual medley at the Rio Olympics Thursday night.
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Phelps finished the final in 1 minute 54.66 seconds on Thursday, nearly two seconds ahead of Japan’s Kosuke Hagino at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium. Shi Jinglin claimed bronze for China.
Now, he’s the first swimmer ever to win the same event at four straight Olympics.
The grueling double on Thursday appeared to take its toll on Phelps, who was last at the halfway point but battled back to advance to Friday’s final despite being visibly exhausted the final 10 meters of the race as his arm tempo tightened up considerably.
Cape Town – The legend that is Michael Phelps has 22 Olympic gold medals to his name – one fewer than South Africa in their history.
They’re sharing a suite in the Olympic athletes’ village, and if you watched the pool deck before the 4×200-meter freestyle relay Tuesday, you saw them chuckling together.
Despite winning four golds in London in 2012, Phelps has said he was dissatisfied with his preparation and results there and wants to bow out on his own terms.
“I probably wouldn’t be the swimmer I am today if it wasn’t for Michael because we bring out the best of each other”, said Lochte, who grew up in Daytona Beach and swam at Florida.
Rie Kaneto claimed Japan’s second swimming gold medal of the Rio Olympics by winning the women’s 200m breaststroke final.
“Every single day”, Phelps said, “I’m living a dream come true”.
Murphy became the third American man in the last five Olympics to take both races.
The Barcelona Games were the last time the United States lost a men’s backstroke final. The 100 back was an event that comes a little bit more natural.
Then came the 200m IM ceremony, Phelps posing only for one set of pictures and holding up four fingers, signifying either his fourth gold medal of the Rio 2016 Games or fourth straight 200m IM gold, take your pick.
Australia’s Mitch Larkin grabbed the silver in 1:53.96, just ahead of Russia’s Evgeny Rylov with the bronze in 1:53.97.
And his win in the 200-meters means the USA has won the event six times in a row dating to 1996 in Atlanta.
Meanwhile Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu qualified fastest for the women’s 200m backstroke final on Friday with a time of 2:06.03. I can’t say this is my last time swimming.
Brazilian contender Thiago Pereira, buoyed by an ecstatic crowd, led after the opening butterfly lap and was equal second at the halfway point, but faded to finish seventh.
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“Just coming into this race tonight, I kind of tried to take the weight of the black community off my shoulders, which is something I carry with me just being in this position”, Manuel told reporters.
