Friday’s silver brought to 27 his number of Olympic medals overall bringing a breathtakingly impressive tally: 22 gold, three silver and two bronze.
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Joseph Schooling pulled off a stunning Olympic upset on Friday by beating USA legend Michael Phelps in the 100m butterfly to win Singapore’s first ever gold medal.
Phelps actually finished in a rare three-way tie for the silver with South Africa’s Chad le Clos and Hungary’s Laszlo Cseh.
For Singapore, Schooling’s medal was the first-ever gold medal – in any sport.
“Rivals and friends Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte faced off in the 200-meter individual medley finals in Rio Thursday night”.
The pair met eight years ago when Phelps was already an Olympic legend and Schooling a teenaged super-fan at school in Singapore. Four years on, Brazil is hosting the Games and the 57kg category judoka is the heroine as the country’s first and only gold medal of the opening week of competition.
Anthony Ervin capped a remarkable personal journey with a gold in the 50 freestyle – 16 years after he won his first individual gold in the same event at the Sydney Games.
If Biles takes the vault, beam and floor over coming days she will have won more gold at one Games than any other woman, overtaking Soviet gymnast Larissa Latynina (1956), Czech Vera Caslavska (1968) and Romanian Ecaterina Szabo (1984), who have all won four.
It was purely a race against the clock for the 19-year-old, as she sliced nearly two seconds off her world record to win in 8 minutes and 4.79 seconds.
Right as Friedman said that, Phelps name came up as the victor.
By midway through the race, Ledecky was well ahead of the world-record pace.
Ledecky was barely breathing hard.
It seems nearly impossible for three athletes to finish at the exact same time, but such three-way ties had happened 20 times before at the Olympics, according to sports historian Bill Mallon.
While Ledecky, at 19, is the youngest member of the US team, Ervin is the oldest at 35. Nadal also reached the semifinals in his bid for a second Olympic singles gold, overcoming his Brazilian opponent and a raucous flag-waving home crowd.
Turns out, it was swimming all along. In London, Singapore won two bronze medals in table tennis. Now, improbably, he’s back on the top of the podium again.
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With Anthony Ervin winning the men’s 50 freestyle and Maya DiRado taking gold in the women’s 200 backstroke, the Americans would have had a clean sweep were it not for the silver by Phelps, the most decorated Olympian in history.
