Michael Phelps Most Decorated Olympian Ever After Gold Medal in 4×200 Relay
Michael Phelps is now the most decorated Olympic athlete in history.
Michael Phelps has made history again this summer, 4 years after completely dominating Beijing and winning 8 gold medals. He now has 19 medals, which has surpassed the Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina as the most decorated Olympian in history.
The U.S squad won the 4×200 meter free style relay Tuesday night at the Aquatic Centre.
Phelps also won a medal Tuesday morning, but it was a silver medal in the 200 meter butterfly final after Chad le Clos of South Africa beat Phelps to the wall by 0.05 seconds. Phelps led the entire way except for the finish. He also looked strong in the butterfly semi-final yesterday; it was an event he had won at the last two Olympics and he nearly won it for 3 Olympics in a row, which would have been truly astounding.
Phelps also has more gold medals(15) than any Olympian ever and beat Mark Spitz’s record with 8 at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Phelps has said in the previous months that this will be his final Olympics, and that he is looking forward to getting out of the pool after this summer and working on his golf game. He is also looking forward to doing a little bit of traveling, because he has not been able to be a tourist in any of the places he has traveled in his life. His full focus was always on swimming, and it paid off for him this summer in London.
More coverage of Phelps’ record setting day can be found here.
