He initially retired after the 2012 London Olympics, only to decide about a year later to return.
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Cody Miller, who swam in the gold-medal winning relay race on Saturday, said, “The G.O.A.T (Greatest Of All Time) Michael Phelps isn’t just an incredible swimmer”.
Hundreds of screaming fans joined Schooling’s family at Singapore’s Changi Airport to welcome home the 21-year-old, who beat American swimming great Michael Phelps in the 100 meters butterfly in Rio de Janeiro on Friday.
“They were with Joseph every step of the way; they always believed in him, and cheered him on at all his swim meets. He’s already eyeing them”.
“I walked to the pool tonight and I nearly felt myself starting to cry – the last warm-up, the last time putting on a suit, the last time walking out in front of thousands of people representing my country”, Phelps, 31, said of his final swim in his fifth Olympics. I am retiring, this is it.
“Out of the 1,000 gold medals, more than half have come from track and field (323) and swimming (246)”.
He quit drinking, reconnected with his estranged father, got engaged, moved to Arizona with his longtime coach Bob Bowman, and became a father.
Gaines: “I know, he was on my couch for a while”.
Katie Ledecky, the 19-year-old sensation who won four gold medals at these Games, posed for a photograph with Phelps and got his autograph when she was 9. Swimming felt like a chore.
Phelps awoke Sunday morning, the day after what he says was the last race of his career, as a contented man. You just wanted to give the big lug a hug. “He prepared well. He did it the right way, and he loves it”.
Le Clos spent a lot of time staring down Phelps in the pool during that heat Monday, and again during the finals, but Phelps just ignored him. But he still couldn’t have imagined such a golden medal haul. Michael Phelps finishing, Mo Farah kicking, Novak Djokovic and Juan Martin del Potro weeping, Simone Biles soaring, swimmers bickering, Puerto Rico winning its first gold and losing its mind, Fiji winning its first gold medal and going down on one knee.
“He really showed the meaning of hard work, which I think is a really great inspiration for my two sons”, she said of the third-generation Singaporean. “Watching the moment live on television left me excited and happy”.
Yes, this is the way Phelps wanted to go out – not dreading the pool and counting the hours until the end. Last warm-down. Check.
The 24-year-old van Niekerk even leaned at the finish line, which he really didn’t need to do as Kirani James of Grenada and LaShawn Merritt of the Unites States weren’t even in the picture.
Boomer was sleeping when Phelps got to the hotel after what was presumably the final race of his career. “But that might have been thrown out there”.
Murphy, who won two backstroke golds in Rio, put the Americans out front with a world-record split – it counts since he was leading off – before Britain surged ahead on the breaststroke with its own world-record holder, Adam Peaty. Breaststroker Cody Miller followed, eventually ceding a bit of ground to Britain’s phenomenal Adam Peaty. There were 15 ties and five lead changes alone in the epic 29-minute second set, keeping the fans in the 12,000-seat beachside arena on their feet long after the sun set over the Rio de Janeiro mountains. By the time he touched the wall at the end of his leg, the Americans led by 0.41 seconds. King was sharply critical of Efimova’s 16-month ban for a positive test in 2013 before beating her to gold in the 100-meter breaststroke Monday.
Afterward, the tears came and Phelps’ eyes glistened, first as he embraced his teammates and raised his arms and later as the national anthem played for him – and his accomplishments – one last time.
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“He came back with more goal”, Lochte observed.
