He ends his career with 23 gold medals, more than any Olympic athlete in history.
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Even his lone silver-to Singapore sensation Joseph Schooling in the 100m fly-carried a whiff of the extraordinary: it was a rare three-way tie with le Clos and Phelps’s longtime Hungarian rival Laszlo Cseh.
United States’ Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps gestures as he restates his intention to retire at a news conference at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, Aug. 14, 2016. In Rio Olympics, he won 5 gold as well as one Silver medal.
Elaine Thompson of Jamaica won the women’s 100-meter title in 10.71 seconds, ending fellow Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce’s bid to win the event for a third straight Olympics.
The quartet won gold in the next event in the pool, which was also the final race on the Rio swimming program. Back in 2000, a 15-year-old Phelps first appeared on the big stage.
It is also apparent, however, he has not been able to elevate it much beyond what it has been – something people only care about during Olympic years and he knows he has work to do.
“I hope this opens more doors for sports in our country and hopefully I’ve set a precedent for a lot more young guys to come because I’ve done something that no-one in our country has done before”.
Vollmer said: “It really makes me think about all the generations of Olympic teams and athletes I watched and the inspiration that I have had”. However, I will not take part as a competitor.
“Michael Jordan has been an inspiration for me throughout my whole career”, Phelps said.
“Being apart from him for the last three weeks, four weeks from when I saw him last, he’s grown so much”, Phelps said. Phelps’ mother, Debbie, and fiancee, Nicole Johnson, both floated the possibility, too. He initially retired after the 2012 London Olympics, only to decide about a year later to return.
Phelps’ long-time coach Bob Bowman said swimming was unlikely to see anyone of his sort again.
Michael Phelps of reacts after the USA team won the men’s 4 x 100 IM relay, the last of Phelps’ performances at the Rio Olympics, and likely in his career. “Michael, I’ll see you in Tokyo.” .
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Then he dived in and did what Michael Phelps does, helping the U.S. to gold in the 4x100m and 4x200m freestyle relays, avenging his 2012 200m fly loss to le Clos and notching his fourth straight 200m individual medley title. “In the left foot, there’s a footprint of him, inside of my shoe, and I put my shoe on and I looked down at it and I started to get emotional because I knew he was in the stands”. “That’s all I can really say”.
