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LONDON, England, July 31. WHILE he might have tied the overall career Oympic medal record with a surprising silver in his pet event the men's 200-meter fly, Michael Phelps left no doubt as he broke the record with his 19th Olympic medal with a gold-medal anchor leg in the men's 800-meter freestyle relay at the 2012 London Olympics.
Team USA broke the 7:00 barrier in textile as Ryan Lochte (1:45.15), Conor Dwyer (1:45.23), Ricky Berens (1:45.27) and Phelps (1:44.05) dominated the event from start to finish. The win moved Phelps past Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina as the most decorated Olympic athlete of all time. Heading into the race, the two had been tied with Phelps' silver in the 200 fly. His 15th gold medal, however, pushed him over the top. His total medal tally now stands at 15 golds, 2 silver and 2 bronze with a chance to push his medal tally into the 20s.
Michael Phelps Olympic Rundown
2012 London
1 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay 6:59.70
2 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay 3:10.38
2 200m Butterfly 1:53.01
4 400m Individual Medley 4:09.28
? 100m Butterfly
? 200m Individual Medley
? 4 x 100m Medley Relay
2008 Beijing
1 200m Freestyle 1:42.96
1 100m Butterfly 50.58
1 200m Butterfly 1:52.03
1 200m Individual Medley 1:54.23
1 400m Individual Medley 4:03.84
1 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay 3:08.24
1 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay 6:58.56
1 4 x 100m Medley Relay 3:29.34
2004 Athens
1 100m Butterfly 51.25
1 200m Butterfly 1:54.04
1 200m Individual Medley 1:57.14
1 400m Individual Medley 4:08.26
1 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay 7:07.33
1 4 x 100m Medley Relay 3:30.68
3 200m Freestyle 2004 1:45.32
3 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay 3:14.62
2000 Sydney
5 200m Butterfly 1:56.50
While Phelps has been looking for an elusive individual threepeat this week, he was a part of a relay threepeat as the U.S. won its third straight in the event. Since the relay first began being contested in 1908, Team USA has won 16 times, including a span of incredible dominance from 1960 through 1976 that including five consecutive triumphs.
Lochte, meanwhile, pushed his overall Olympic medal tally to nine with the performance. That ties him with Ian Thorpe, Alexander Popov, and Zoltan von Halmay in the career swimming rankings.
France's Amaury Leveaux (1:46.70), Gregory Mallet (1:46.83), Clement Lefert (1:46.00) and Yannick Agnel (1:43.24) finished second in the event with a time of 7:02.77. That's the first medal in the event for France since back-to-back bronzes in 1948 and 1952.
China's Hao Yun (1:47.12), Li Yunqi (1:46.46), Jiang Haiqi (1:47.17) and Sun Yang (1:45.55) edged Germany's Paul Biedermann (1:46.15), Dimitri Colupaev (1:46.36), Tim Wallburger (1:47.48) and Clemens Rapp (1:46.60), 7:06.30 to 7:06.59, for the bronze medal. The medal is China's first men's relay medal of any kind as its men's team continues to catch up to the women medal haul.
Australia (7:07.00), Great Britain (7:09.33), South Africa (7:09.65) and Hungary (7:13.66) rounded out the championship heat.
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