— Niall Kelly reports from the Olympic Aquatics Stadium, Rio de Janeiro
MICHAEL PHELPS IS already The Greatest Of All Time. At this point, the question might well be asked: what’s greater than The Greatest?
Of his 21 Olympic golds, tonight’s must easily rank among the most meaningful.
Redemptive, as he avenged his only solo loss from London and took back the 2oom butterfly title that he had monopolised since Athens in 2004; a definitive answer to those who claimed that his age, form or personal problems of a couple of years ago might somehow render him less effective than usual.
Sweet, as he went eyeball to eyeball down the stretch with the very man who took that title from him four years ago, Chad Le Clos, and buried him.
Once friends, the rivalry between the two has flared over the last four years, played out through potshots and petty sniping in the media. And so when this race turned for home in the final 50, it couldn’t have been scripted better: Phelps in the lead; Le Clos, his nearest rival, just 0.67 seconds back.
You could see the sinew straining across the South African’s back as he rose and plunged ever more frantically, doing everything to close the gap, staring across into the next lane to see Phelps still a head in front.
He gave his all in that final 50 but it wasn’t nearly enough. In the end he didn’t even hang on for bronze, squeezed out into fourth by Hungary’s Tamas Kenderesi.
And as it became clear that Phelps would land the scoring shot when it mattered the most, it was easy to miss Masato Sakai — 10 years Phelps’ junior — streaking towards the line in lane seven, away from the central drama.
Sakai so nearly did it, touching down just four one-hundredths of a second too late. Inches from turning the story on its head; blink and you’ll miss it stuff.
Victory was met with a simple wag of the finger by Phelps. No explanation required.
“That event is kind of like my bread and butter and that was the last time I’ll ever swim it. Having that come to an end, it’s weird, it’s crazy to think about,” he said afterwards.
There wasn’t a shot in hell I was losing that race and if I did, I was leaving everything in the pool.
“Just being able to see the one by my name again, one more time in the 200 fly. Couldn’t have scripted it any better.”
He was sure to savour it, seeking out his fiancee Nicole and sharing the kind of priceless moment that Boomer, his baby son, won’t remember but will treasure forever.
“One more,” he mouthed to his mother Debbie in the crowd and then duly delivered, re-emerging a little over an hour later to anchor Team USA to gold in the 4×200 freestyle relay.
As fans filed out of the Olympic Aquatics Stadium and into the Olympic Park, Calvin Harris’s latest hit pumped from the arena PA.
This is what you came for? You bet.
Those privileged to be there witnessed a great of the past extending his legacy once more into the present.
They might just have witnessed the future too in 19-year-old Katie Ledecky, who took her second gold of these Games in the 200m freestyle.
It is fun to watch Ledecky eviscerate world-class fields, take chunks out of her own world records that are measured in whole seconds rather than fractions, and wrap up her celebrations before any of her opponents have even finished racing.
A lot of fun.
Her superstar pedigree isn’t in any doubt. It wasn’t up for debate before she put on a masterclass in the women’s 200m freestyle final — and it sure as hell wasn’t up for debate afterwards.
But this was different kind of victory: under fire from arguably the greatest sprinter in the world right now, facing the toughest of questions, and coming out on top.
Still slightly out of her comfort zone over the shorter distance — if that’s even possible – Katie Ledecky did to Sarah Sjostrom tonight what Sarah Sjostrom normally does to everybody else who comes up against her. She simply refused to relent.
Remarkably, it was her 14th win from 14 finals in international competition. So far, so perfect.
“It hurt really badly,” Ledecky admitted afterwards. “I’m pretty sure that’s the closest I’ve come to throwing up in the middle of a race.
“I’m just so glad I got my hand on the wall first — it was all worth it.”
– Additional reporting by AFP
