Michael Phelps celebrates during the medal presentation for the men’s 4×200-meter freestyle at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium on August 9, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro.
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Once again, the gold medal in the 200-meter butterfly belongs to Phelps.
It also earned Phelps his 21st career gold, to go along with two silver and two bronze.
The rivalry between USA swimmer Michael Phelps and South Africa Chad le Clos is well documented. He immediately yelled for Conor Dwyer, who swam the relay’s first leg, to lend him his cap.
For Lochte, it was his first individual swim in the Rio games.
Ledecky captured her second gold medal of the Games after holding off a courageous charge from Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom in an absorbing women’s 200m freestyle final.
Phelps and Lochte, the world record holder in the event coming into Rio, were also part of the gold medal-winning 4×200-meter freestyle relay team on Tuesday.
Phelps, however, started too slowly, hitting the 50-meter turn in sixth place. He’ll try to become the first swimmer, male or female, to win the same event in four straight Olympics.
“Of course I wanted gold like any other athlete, especially at the Olympics, and it was so close”, Efiomova said.
Phelps has dominated the 200m IM at the Olympics, having won it in every Games since Athens in 2004. At 31 – the oldest individual Olympic swimming gold medalist ever – Phelps is still the master of the pool. “I’m accepting the race that I had tonight”.
“It’s everything and more than I’d hoped it to be”, said the tiny 19-year-old Texan, who has set gymnastics alight with 10 world titles in the past three years. And after the medley’s done, Phelps has the butterfly semifinals roughly 30 minutes later. Phelps finally said, “I got it, I got it”, and managed to yank the thing on himself. Commentators initially didn’t bet that Phelps would be a solid favorite in any of his events. Among them are 12 individual golds, a total that hasn’t been seen since Leonidas of Rhodes did it 2,168 years ago by winning three footraces in four consecutive Olympiads. “That’s why he brings out the best in me and hopefully I do the exact same for him”.
Even though she finished second at the U.S. Olympic trials, which normally would’ve meant giving her the afternoon off along with expected anchor Katie Ledecky, Franklin’s poor form prompted the coaches to rest Leah Smith instead.
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“We got a lot of young kids, and I think we showed how much talent they have here”, he said.
