While in Rio, Michael has won five gold medals and one silver, making him the most decorated Olympian in history. “That’s what I wanted to do”, said Phelps about his participation in Tokyo 2020. After all, he said the same thing after the 2012 London Games. At 31 years old, it’s undeniable that he hit a career peak at the Beijing Games eight years ago, and Phelps himself admitted that he wasn’t sure how successful he’d be at defending his Olympic titles until he took home a familiar gold medal in the 200m butterfly.
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Meanwhile, Phelps’ long-time coach Bob Bowman said swimming was unlikely to see anyone of his sort again.
Lochte, the 12-time medalist whose Rio Olympics ended Thursday night with a disappointing fifth-place swim in the 200-meter individual medley, declined to announce his retirement Friday. It just feels good to know that the hard work did pay off and I was able to fight through some of the times that I went through the last two years and get back to where I actually wanted to be.
“I can look at that race and say it was one of the best races of my life”. Connor Jaeger of the United States of America took the silver, and Paltinieri’s countryman Gabriele Detti increased Italy’s joy by taking bronze in a dramatic tussle at the finish with American Jordan Wilimovsky.
“I think personally for me I could have gone a little faster”, she said, “but any time you win gold, especially on a relay, especially with three other awesome women, it’s such an honor”.
“I picked him up after I was done and just held him”. I don’t want to miss a thing.
Vollmer teamed up with backstroker Kathleen Baker, breaststroker Lilly King and freestyle sprinter Simone Manuel to claim victory in Saturday’s race in three minutes 53.13 seconds.
Phelps jumped into the water for the last time yesterday (Saturday) and won another Olympic gold medal, his 23.
Manuel, who had become the first African-American woman to win gold earlier in the Rio Games with her win in the 100 free, settled for silver this time in 24.09. Michael Phelps was clearly very unamused, and thus the “Phelps Face” was born!
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The U.S. also won 33 medals at Sydney in 2000. “But I’m glad I did, because it is something that needs to be noticed, and it’s something that needs to be dealt with, and I just happened to be the person that made a decision to come out, so I’m super glad I did it”.
