Both Phelps and Ledecky have dominated in the pool but it was the main man who commanded the attention after exorcising his demons of yesteryear.
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After Ledecky captured the gold medal in the 200-meter freestyle, ESPN sports business reporter Darren Rovell tweeted out a photo of Ledecky at 9 years old getting an autograph from Phelps.
Phelps, who had announced his retirement after London but launched a comeback in 2014, then celebrated by climbing into the stands to embrace his fiancee Nicole and kiss his baby son Boomer.
For Phelps, the butterfly victory was especially sweet after the sting of the London defeat, where he misjudged his final lunge for the wall to let Le Clos steal the gold medal.
Much of the talk ahead of the rematch in Rio had centered on Phelps’ revenge mission – and he didn’t disappoint – he smashed it. Ledecky’s time of 1:53.73 bested Swedish rival Sarah Sjostrom (1:54.08).
Le Clos, whose preparation for the Games has largely been overshadowed by the news that both of his parents were diagnosed with cancer, just missed out in fourth. The gold in the 200 fly was the 20th of his career, the gold in the relay his 21st, and by now pointing out this is a record doesn’t fully convey its enormity. Conor Dwyer, Townley Haas and Ryan Lochte made sure of that, handing off a commanding lead to the most decorated athlete in Olympic history.
The 19-year-old, who finished behind Sjostrom in her semifinal heat, took the race to her opponents to finish in 1 minute 53.73 seconds.
Ledecky also claimed silver in the 4×100 free relay and has two more races to go, setting herself up for a medal haul that would fully live up to the enormous expectations she faced coming into the Olympics.
Few would bet against her making it three golds, with the American holding the world record in the event.
“It’s the closest I’ve come to throwing up at the end of a race”.
“The last 50 I just had to dig deep, do my own thing and see if I could get my hand on the wall first”. “It always just feels good when it’s over”.
Rio de Janeiro, August 10 – Federica Pellegrini hinted that she may retire from swimming after failing to win a medal in the final of the 200 metres freestyle at the Rio Olympics.
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So far these Games, Ledecky is 2-for-2 in individual events.
