However, Phelps responded at the Phillips 66 National Championships, where he clocked in a 100-meter butterfly of 50.45 seconds that bested his gold-medal-winning time at each Games, per the Associated Press’ Paul Newberry (via the Baltimore Sun).
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What made it even more special: Schooling still has a picture that he took with Phelps when the US team trained in Singapore before the 2008 Olympics, the games where Phelps won a record eight gold medals in the pinnacle of his career.
The 4D number 5039 was sold out within an hour of Schooling winning the race, which saw the Singaporean swimmer beat American great Michel Phelps, South Africa’s Chad le Clos and Hungary’s Laszlo Cesh for the gold.
Phelps has won four gold medals so far in Rio; Ledecky has three golds and a silver.
Schooling remembered being “shell-shocked” when his hero Phelps visited his swimming club. Schooling also broke Phelps’ Olympic record.
“That one was very painful but I wanted that one really bad”, Murphy told reporters. “He’s just done so much for the sport and people are going to miss him overall because he helped it to grow so much”, says McMahon. “I try not to even think about it because then I get focused on that”. “It’s all about my coaches, my friends, my family that believed when I was a 6-year-old kid, [that] I can do this”.
“I thought about it the last 50 and that’s what got me home”, he said.
Only the final two swimming events remained: the 4×100 medley relays for men and women, featuring what was touted as Michael Phelps’ finale.
If Phelps was disappointed with his non-gold medal, it did not show. She and Canada’s Penny Oleksiak upstaged Australia’s Campbell sisters and shared the podium after they touched in the identical Olympic record time of 52.70.
The American champion benefited from being more easily able to pile up medals in several events.
On Tuesday, he won his 12th Olympic medal in what should have been a headline-hogging accomplishment.
The perseverance that it takes to have a great swimming career, and like Phelps, McMahon aspires to have a long one. He will be racing in the 4×100 medley relay Saturday night.
There are 22 golds at stake on a sun-splashed Day 8 of the Rio Games in 13 sports, including fencing, track cycling, boxing, shooting, trampoline and weightlifting. What time is he swimming at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium?
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Earlier, US teammate Maya Dirado earned her first gold of the Rio Games, after claiming a silver and bronze earlier in the week, as she pipped Katinka Hosszu in the women’s 200m backstroke. “I’ve received a lot of support and that’s phenomenal”.
