Written by Alan Abrahmanson at NBC Olympics.com
When, oh when, will everyone learn to stop riling up Michael Phelps?
As the U.S. swim star Natalie Coughlin put it Tuesday night on Twitter, “Don’t poke the bear.”
In the latest chapter in a long-running story of what happens when you poke the bear, Phelps, obviously fired up by South African star Chad le Clos’ antics Monday in the ready room, won his 20th Olympic gold medal in the event that has seemingly forever meant the most to him and his family, the 200m butterfly.
Phelps went out hard, took the lead at 100 meters and hung on down the stretch in Tuesday night’s final to win in 1:53.36, punctuating an hour’s worth of action that saw some of the most thrilling racing in Olympic history.
Just before Phelps, Katie Ledecky dug deeper than she ever had to win the women’s 200m free, in 1:53.73. To close the night, the U.S. men, with Phelps dropping the hammer on the anchor, following Conor Dwyer, Townley Haas and Ryan Lochte, raced to gold in the 4x200m free relay, in 7:00.66.
The relay gold is No. 21 for Phelps, 25th overall across five editions of the Games.
The 200m fly made for Phelps’ 14th career individual Olympic medal — tied with the Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina.
Phelps said afterward that he had been talking with his longtime coach, Bob Bowman, about his — to switch to the plural pronouns Phelps used, their — medal haul: “That’s a lot of medals. We’ve got a lot of medals. It’s just insane.”
Lochte, meanwhile, passed Mark Spitz to become the second most-decorated male swimmer ever. Spitz won 11 medals. Lochte now has 12.
When they tell the story of this night at the Olympic Games, it will start with this: Phelps and Ledecky put on clinics. The lessons: pride, will and guts.
Then the conversation will turn to le Clos.
After shadow-boxing in front of Phelps before Monday’s racing in the ready room, a stunt that earned from Phelps a death glare that launched a thousand or more internet memes, le Clos took fourth Tuesday in the race that mattered, in 1:54.06.
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