Phelps began the evening by avenging 24-year-old Le Clos’ victory over him at London 2012.
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Ryan Lochte swam the third leg and Michael Phelps was the anchor. Phelps stopped to kiss and his mother Debbie, fiancee Nicole and young son Boomer, a moment that captured how much the victory meant to the Phelps family following his turbulent return to competitive swimming in 2014. The 31-year-old clocked 1:53.36 to beat Japan’s Masato Sakai by just four hundredths of second at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium, Xinhua news agency reported.
The 200 fly was the one he really wanted, and it showed. Ledecky, 19 is often called the future of American swimming; Phelps is sometimes called a part of its past. Phelps came back later the same day with a faster swim in the same event. It was a development Le Clos and his team considered illegitimate because Phelps didn’t have to deal with “Chad Le Clos [coming] back at you the last 50 meters”. Phelps was caught making a slightly terrifying face before the meet as Le Clos went on with some pre-race dancing.
Ledecky edged Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom by 0.35 seconds with a finishing time of 1:53.73. As they hit the final few meters, Le Clos started to fall well off the pace, his strategy of going out early, as he did in the 200 free where he led for most of the race before settling for silver, backfiring.
In addition to wanting to beat his toughest competition, le Clos has been motivated by a more personal issue. Ledecky now has the 200 and 400 titles, and she’s an overwhelming favorite to win the 800.
“That hurt pretty badly”, Ledecky said after the race. “I came into the pool tonight with a mission and the mission was accomplished”.
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Phelps responded by letting the crowd do the talking for him after second gold medal in Rio, waving his hands to orchestrate those in attendance as he hoped out of the pool. “I took it out pretty fast and kind of forced everybody to try to do that”.
