Michael Phelps insisted victory was never in doubt in the 200m butterfly on a night when he took his Olympic gold medal-winning tally to 21.
Phelps came out of post-London 2012 retirement with the view to taking his career total of Olympic golds past 20 and win his signature event, the 200m butterfly, one more time, having lost out to South Africa’s Chad le Clos four years ago.
After winning the individual event, he returned to the pool an hour later to ease the US to victory in the 4x200m freestyle and win his third gold in Rio.
“There wasn’t a shot in hell I was losing that tonight,” he said after edging out Japan’s Masato Sakai, while Le Clos had to make do with fourth. “Seeing the number one next to my name just one more time in the 200m fly, I couldn’t have scripted it any better.
“This is a race I really wanted tonight. I really wanted that one back. And doing the double is a lot harder than it once was in an hour, and what happened four years ago [the London 2012 defeat] is still with me.”
The Phelps gold rush is unlikely to be finished with the 100m butterfly and more relay glory still on the cards.
