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LONDON, England, August 3. THE greatest Olympian of all time, Michael Phelps, just continued to ramp up his already astonishing resume with an unprecedented second Olympic threepeat with a win in the men’s 100-meter fly at the 2012 London Olympics.
After becoming the first man to ever threepeat an event with a title defense in the 200 IM earlier in the week, Phelps clocked a 51.21 tonight to win the men’s 100 fly for the third consecutive time in what he is calling the last individual event of his career. He is now the first person ever to have completed an Olympic treble in two events. Dawn Fraser and Krisztina Egerszegi had stood as the only swimmers to have done so prior to this meet, and now Phelps has done it twice in one week.
“This is my last individual event. This one was awesome,” Phelps said. “I felt hitting the wall I wasn’t too happy. The finish was a little long. This swim was pretty important to me. I wanted to win. If I wanted to swim faster I should have prepared better. It’s really cool walking out. Everyone was going crazy. It’s something I have dreamed about. The sport has changed throughout my career. There are a lot of young guys to take the sport to the next level. It’s pretty cool for me to be a part of that.”
The win also gave him his 21st career Olympic medal, already a record by three, and an unbelievable 17 golds. One more gold and his gold medal tally will equal the previous overall career record of Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina at 18.
Michael Phelps Olympic Rundown
2012 London
1 100m Butterfly 51.21
1 200m Individual Medley 1:54.27
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
? 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
South Africa’s Chad le Clos, who upset Phelps in the 200 fly earlier in the meet, wound up matching Russia’s Evgeny Korotyshkin for silver with 51.44s. That’s South Africa’s first medal in the event’s history, and gave le Clos his second of the meet along with his 200 fly gold.
“That was a medal I had never expected. I am not disappointed at all,” le Clos said. “[Phelps] wished me luck for the future [after the race]. I am pretty sure no one has said [South Africa] would win three medals”
Korotyshkin, meanwhile, earned his first Olympic medal of any color. He’d finished fourth in the 400 medley relay in both 2004 and 2008. That is Russia’s first medal since a 1-3 effort from Denis Pankratov and Vladislav Kulikov in 1996.
“I’m extremely happy with my results and I’ve never enjoyed any of my finals as much as this one,” Korotyshkin said. “That’s what I’ve been told – go out there and enjoy. It seems to be working. Swimming is great. I would advise every single parent to encourage their kids to do swimming. It’s difficult, but it’s a great sport and the enjoyment of it just pays off. I was going to stop swimming after the last Olympics, but my parents and friends said that I should carry on and I did listen to my parents because they’ve always been supportive to me. I’m really happy I did.”
Serbia’s Milorad Cavic (51.81), Germany’s Steffen Deibler (51.81), The Netherlands’ Joeri Verlinden (51.82), USA’s Tyler McGill (51.88) and Poland’s Konrad Czerniak (52.05) rounded out the championship heat. Cavic has said he was retiring after this swim.
“It is a great disappointment that I did not at the very least improve my time from the semifinal,” Cavic said. “In the last 25 I was coaching myself, ‘Go on, go on, do not give up, use your legs’. There is no doubt in my mind that I gave everything I had. I left everything in the pool and that gave me comfort. Clearly it was not enough. I am lucky to be here at all. My back, if you look at an MRI, looks like the back of a 50-year-old man. I cannot believe [Michael] Phelps. I’m a one-trick pony and he’s the king. It’s fitting that I’m finishing here in the same competition as Michael.”
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