Gold medalist Michael Phelps of the United States celebrates during the medal presentation for the Men's 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay Final on Day 4 of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium on August 9, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Photo : GettyImages/David Ramos)
Michael Phelps stunned a roaring crowd with his amazing win of the 200-meter butterfly on Tuesday night. An hour later, he took over a triumphant victory in hosting the 4x200 freestyle relay, as the crowd broke into a deafening cheer.
The 25 Olympics medal owner rushed to the stand after his win to kiss his 3-month old son. "That was probably one of my most challenging doubles. Doing a double like that is a lot harder than it once was," he opined.
It was, indeed, a stellar performance and Phelps nailed it with grace. The victory came on a night when Katie Ledecky from America picked up her second gold in what could be defined a historic run in the pool.
Phelps has made a record with 25 medals, since no other Olympian has managed to earn more than nine golds. Three more races are still to go at Rio that can encourage him to earn more golds. When asked about how he feels of winning so many medals, he quips, "That's a lot of medals. It's just insane."
The American swimmer wanted the 200 fly really bad, and it showed. It was a tight competition, and Michael made sure that he took half-stroke to reach the timing pad. "Going into the finish, I said, 'If I have to take a half-stroke, I'm going to take a half-stroke."
Both Michael and Katie Ledecky had a neck-to-neck competition in the pool, but the main man emerged as the winner. After losing his 200-meter butterfly title at the last Olympics four years ago, Michael managed to teach his rival Chad le Close a tough lesson, ESPN reported.
He is, by far, the oldest individual to win a gold medalist in the Olympics at the age of 31. Phelps had quit swimming after his loss in the London 2012 Olympics. The veteran swimmer finished the final length in a time of 1 minute 53.73 seconds. The second runner-up was Masato Sakai from Japan who won silver and Tamas Kenderesi from Hungary claiming bronze, CNN reported.
Le Clos, on the other hand, finished in the fourth position, whose preparation was hugely impacted by the shocking news of both his parents being diagnosed with cancer. Before stealing some moments to take rest after the tiring competition, he celebrated along with Conor Dwyer, Townley Haas and Ryan Lochte.
Take a look at this interesting video that show the amazing evolution of Michael Phelps:
