RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL - AUGUST 11: Gold medalist Michael Phelps of the United States celebrates during the medal ceremony for the Men's 200m Individual Medley Final on Day 6 of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium on August 11, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images)
Michael Phelps has made his mark in history yet again.
The USA star became the first swimmer ever to win four consecutive gold medals in the same event by earning his fourth straight 200-meter individual medley Olympic title on Thursday night in Rio, the 13th individual victory of his Olympic career.
The medal is also the 22nd gold and 26th overall of Phelps’ Olympic career. Given that the win marks the 31-year-old’s 13th individual Olympic triumph, this means he surpassed the greatest athlete of Ancient Greece and of the Games themselves– Leonidas of Rhodes, who had 12 individual triumphs, according to the official Olympics website. At 36, Leonaidas won is last three events in 152 B.C., in races of about 200 and 400 meters, and in a shield-carrying race. Phelps finished in 1 minute, 54.66 seconds, just off teammate Ryan Lochte’s world record of 1:54.00.
Holding up the medal hanging around his neck with one hand, Phelps couldn’t help but smile and show a number “four” with his other hand to boast the number of golds he now holds in the event. He now joins track and field Olympians Al Oerter and Carl Lewis as the only Americans to win an individual event four times.
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“Right now, I don’t know how to wrap my head around that,” said Phelps, on winning his 13th individual gold. “I don’t know what to say. It’s been a hell of a career.”
Japan’s Kosuke Hagino took silver with a final time of 1:56.61. Hagino also won gold in the 400-meter individual medley earlier this week. China’s Wang Shun won bronze with a final time of 1:57.61.
Lochte, meanwhile, failed to medal in an Olympic event for only the second time in his career. The 32-year-old three-time Olympic medalist in this event finished fifth with a time of 1:57.47, right behind fourth-place Hiromasa Fujimori of Japan. Phelps competed in the semifinal of the 100-meter butterfly about 30 minutes after exiting the pool from the 200-meter IM.
“I felt good right before that race and during that race, I don’t know, something happened and it just wasn’t there,” Lochte said to media. “I gave it my all and I guess it just wasn’t that good.”
The 100-meter butterfly final is set for Friday. Phelps, who is set to retire following the Games, could potentially leave Rio with five gold medals by the end of the competition.
He wasn’t the only one to win gold on Thursday, however. USA teammate Ryan Murphy, 21, won his second gold of the Games after capturing the 200-meter backstroke title.
Murphy, who won the 100-meter backstroke in Olympic record time, beat out Australia’s Mitch Larkin and Russia’s Evgeny Rylov.
Murphy’s double makes him just the sixth man to win the backstroke double at an Olympics and the first since American Aaron Peirsol in 2004.
His win in the 200 meters also now means the US has won the event six times in a row dating to 1996 in Atlanta.
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