Michael Phelps' perfect Rio run comes to an end with silver in 100 butterfly
Michael Phelps congratulates Singapore’s Joseph Schooling for his gold in the men’s 100-meter butterfly. (AP)
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RIO DE JANEIRO — Michael Phelps’ perfect Rio Olympics came to an end Friday night. He simply had to settle for another Olympic medal.
Phelps won silver in the 100-meter butterfly final, not capturing gold in it after three consecutive Olympic championships and not winning gold for the first time in Rio, where he already had won four races. The silver pushed Phelps’ total medal count to 27, 22 of them gold.
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While Phelps has alluded to leaving the sport again after coming out of retirement for these Olympics, the 31-year-old was turning in perhaps his best Games outside of winning eight golds in 2008. Earlier this week, he won the 200-meter butterfly, the 200-meter individual medley and a pair of relay races. Phelps’ final race here is Saturday’s 4×100-meter medley.
Phelps finished the race in 51.14, far short of his world record and Olympic record times and behind gold medalist Joseph Schooling of Singapore (50.39). Phelps finished in a three-way tie for second with South Africa’s Chad le Clos and Hungary’s Laszlo Cseh.
“No, I don’t know if I have been in a tie,” Phelps said. “A three-way tie is pretty wild. It’s faster than I went, I think, four years ago to win. [Joseph Schooling] is tough. He had a great year last year and has had a really great last two years so hats off to him. He swam a great race.
“It’s wild. Chad and I have had some races over the last four years and Laszlo and I – I can’t even remember when our first race was. Probably as long as Ryan [Lochte] and I. So kind of special and a decent way to finish my last race. I can’t complain too much.”
American Tom Shields finished seventh (51.73).
