The finger wag became a controversial moment in the battle between US and Russian Federation in the pool, and Phelps weighed in with his beliefs on Monday night to back up King and claim that the sight of past drug cheats competing at the Olympics “breaks my heart”.
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Campbell turned 0.12 inside her own world record before being caught by the two women on either side of her – American Simone Manuel and Canadian schoolgirl Penny Oleksiak, who shared gold in 52.70.
United States’ gold medal victor Michael Phelps competes in the men’s 200-meter individual medley final during the swimming competitions at the 2016 Summer Olympics, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
He’s got 13 individual golds and 26 medals overall.
While the landmark is a swimming first, two other athletes have achieved the feat in other Olympic sports: Al Oerter in discuss and Carl Lewis in long jump.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Phelps finished nearly two seconds clear of Japan’s Kosuke Hagino, with China’s Shun Wang taking bronze. He surpasses the previous record held by Dawn Fraser and Krisztina Egerzegi and became the first swimmer in the same individual event for four times.
And his win in the 200-meters means the USA has won the event six times in a row dating to 1996 in Atlanta. “I think so. I really think so”.
“I don’t know how to wrap my head around that”, Phelps said.
He could add another medal to his haul- as he also competes in the 100m butterfly final tomorrow.
“My first gold medal, at my first Olympics, is kind of a surprise to me”, Manuel told reporters.
The Soviet Union gymnast won 18 medals- 9 of them gold- in the 1950s and 1960s.
The Barcelona Games were the last time the United States lost a men’s final in those events.
In the only non-American victory of the night, Rie Kaneto of Japan pulled away from Yulia Efimova to take gold in the women’s 200 breaststroke. China’s Shi Jinglin took bronze in 2:22.28.
Less than an hour after winning the 400m IM, Phelps qualified for the men’s 100 butterfly final on Friday night.
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“But I was really pleased with today’s medal and the one that came before it because looking back at what happened to me over that time, it’s a big step”. We’re racers. It’s meets like these that I love the most where he and I get to go in and duke it out.
