Swimming World Astonished by Phelps' Double Gold Medal Night

(ATR) Michael Phelps proved he is still the undisputed king of the swimming world.

Phelps delivered a masterful two-event performance, leaving those observing at the Rio Aquatics Stadium on Tuesday night practically in disbelief.

Just before 10:30 p.m. at the jam-packed arena, Phelps held off surging Japanese swimmer Masato Sakai to take gold in the 200m butterfly by four-hundredths of a second, avenging defeat in London 2012 and capturing his third Olympic title in the event.

Within an 80-minute timeframe and just ten minutes after receiving his 20th gold medal, Phelps anchored the U.S. 4x200m squad, as his team cruised to victory by 2.47 seconds ahead of Great Britain. It was the fourth consecutive time that the U.S. has won the relay at the Games and Phelps padded his Olympic gold medal total to 21.

"Doing a double like that is a lot harder than it was," said the 31-year-old Phelps."I came into the pool tonight on a mission and that mission was accomplished."

"It’s probably been one of my most challenging doubles," he told reporters at a news conference on a late night for all at the venue. "That being my very first Olympic event – to win it at my fifth Olympics is really special."

Not surprisingly, other swimmers, coaches and onlookers were astonished by Phelp’s magical night in Rio.

"He’s just proving that he is the greatest swimmer of all time with tonight and that 100m split was 47.1," said his teammate Townley Haas about Phelps anchoring the U.S. relay victory.

Hungarian swimmer Tamas Kenderesi, 19, who took bronze behind Phelps in the 200 Fly, was grateful to share the podium with the American swimming icon.

"It means a lot to me – Michael is my biggest hero," Kenderesi said. "When I was a child I watched his races and this is what prepared me for the competitions. I just want to say a big thanks to him, he really helped me a lot."

Phelps’ 19-year-old teammate Katie Ledecky had an impressive night of her own swimming to a second gold medal at Rio 2016 in the 200m freestyle.

"Everybody on Team USA wants to do really well and every night seems to get better and better in different ways," Ledecky said on a night in which Phelps led the Americans to three victories in four events.

Belgian coach Ronald Gaastra discussed what has made Phelps the most dominant swimmer of our era.

"He can swim how many years in a row now – he can win, he can swim fast, he’s focused, he’s fit and that is very rare for an athlete," Gaastra said. "Often you see that athletes train hard for so long time, they get injured, they get tired and they need time to recuperate – that doesn’t seem to be the case for Phelps."

Gaastra, who has coached the Belgium swimmers since 1989, said he often has his athletes observe everything about what makes Phelps great.

"We look at his races – how he swims technically and how he trains, but we often see we can’t do that because it’s too hard," Gaastra said.

Other young swimmers said they were motivated and inspired to be in the same arena as Phelps on Tuesday night..

"It makes you realize how much work it takes and how tough you have to be and that’s definitely something you aspire to," said 22-year-old Australian bronze medalist Emma McKeon. "I’m going to work towards being as tough as I can just like he has."

"We were in the call room and we heard the crowd – it was so loud and the 200 fly is such an exciting race," said Swiss swimmer Martina van Berkel. "It was really special for me to be part of all this tonight."

At age 31, Michael Phelps is the oldest individual gold medalist in Olympic swimming history. And thanks to him, it was a memorable night for the sport.

Written by Brian Pinelliat the Olympic Aquatics Stadium

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