Phelps wins 21st Olympic gold medal

Michael Phelps bagged the 21st gold medal of his incredible Olympic career on Tuesday, anchoring the United States to victory in the 4x200m freestyle relay.
Phelps, who just over an hour earlier collected his 20th gold for a superb victory in the 200m butterfly, led the United States home for a win in 7min 0.66sec after Conor Dwyer, Townley Haas and Ryan Lochte built up a huge lead after the first three legs.
Britain’s quartet of Stephen Milne, Duncan Scott, Dan Wallace and 200m free world champion James Guy took silver in 7:03.13.
Bronze went to Japan’s Kosuke Hagino, Naito Ehara, Yuki Kabori and Takeshi Matsuda in 7:03.50.
It was a fourth straight Olympic 4x200m free gold for the US men.
The American crushed rival Chad le Clos to regain his 200 meters butterfly title, celebrating victory in a race bristling with tension by pointing to the sky and gesturing to the Rio crowd to “bring the noise” — an order they duly obeyed.
Katinka Hosszu and Katie Ledecky struck further blows for girl power, but again it was all about Phelps, who later anchored the American 4x200 freestyle relay team to gold as the clock edged toward midnight local time.
Milking the acclaim of the Brazilian crowd, Phelps climbed past the massed bank of poolside photographers to kiss fiancee Nicole and baby Boomer after an emotional medals ceremony.
Entering the arena like a gladiator, his face a granite mask of concentration, Phelps dominated a grudge final le Clos had billed as “Ali versus Frazier” to become the oldest individual swimming gold medallist in Olympic history at 31.
South African Le Clos, who won by a fingertip four years ago in London to rob the American of a hat-trick of titles, faded badly down the stretch to finish out of the medals.
World record holder Phelps, the most decorated athlete in Olympic history, clocked 1min 53.36sec to add to his staggering title tally as Japan’s Masato Sakai came through for a surprise silver in 1:53.40. Hungary’s Tamas Kenderesi took bronze in 1:53.62.
Competing in his fifth and final Olympics, victory was twice as sweet for Phelps after clashing with le Clos in the media since losing to the South African in their epic tussle in London.

* * *
Michael Phelps’ 21 Olympic gold medals

Athens 2004
100m butterfly
200m butterfly
200m individual medley
400m individual medley
4x200m freestyle relay
4x100m medley relay

Beijing 2008
200m freestyle
100m butterfly
200m butterfly
200m individual medley
400m individual medley
4x100m freestyle relay
4x200m freestyle relay
4x100m medley relay

London 2012
100m butterfly
200m individual medley
4x200m freestyle relay
4x100m individual medley

Rio 2016
200m butterfly
4x100m freestyle relay
4x200m freestyle relay

Source: Arab News