A famed US swimmer won back the gold medal that is closest to his heart on a day of pure dominance for the most medaled Olympic athlete of all time.
By his own admission, Michael Phelps “couldn’t have scripted it any better,” but Tuesday would also be the toughest day of his career.
“Mission accomplished,” he said on Tuesday after claiming the 20th Olympic gold of his career. “That was the last time I’ll ever swim it and I didn’t say anything to anyone else, but there wasn’t a shot in hell I was losing it.”
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Remarkably, his historic tally of gold medals rose to 21 after he helped Team USA win the 4x200m freestyle relay, just 70 minutes later.
Phelps said he had been prepared to leave “every ounce” in the pool, and it paid off when he won by just 0.04 seconds. “Just being able to see the number one next to my name again, one more time in the 200 fly, I couldn’t have scripted it any better.”
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The London 2012 gold medallist swimmer Le Clos just missed out on the bronze, which was won by Tamas Kenderesi of Hungary, and the silver went to Japan’s Masato Sakai.
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