Vanquished by le Clos, Phelps matches medal record
Chad le Clos denied Michael Phelps’ bid for a 200m butterfly treble by a hair’s breadth Tuesday, but silver allowed the US superstar to match the record for most medals in an Olympic career.
South Africa’s le Clos, third at the final turn, relentlessly reeled in Phelps and plunged past him at the finish to win in 1min 52.96sec.
Phelps, who had led at every turn in a quest to become the first man to win the same Olympic swimming event at three successive Games, was just five-hundredths of a second back in 1:53.01.
Japan’s Takeshi Matsuda earned bronze in 1:53.21.
Le Clos thrust his body out of the water in delight upon seeing the scoreboard. Then he perched on a lane rope as he tried to absorb his achievement.
Phelps has dominated the 200m fly for a decade. He owns the four fastest times in history and his world record of 1min 51.51sec is more than one second faster than the second-best performer in history.
When he saw the result, he flipped his cap away in disappointment.
© AFP 2013The Crowd Says (12) | Page 1 of Comments
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August 1st 2012 @ 5:49am
biltongbek said | August 1st 2012 @ 5:49am | Report comment
Your country is proud of you my man, you just beat the greatest swimmer in history by .05 of a second, I am so chuffed for you.
August 1st 2012 @ 7:06am
Phillip said | August 1st 2012 @ 7:06am | Report comment
Some idiot OZ commentator remarked that Phelps must have been affected by having to swim in relay 1 hour before this race. Le Clos swam in the same relay.Great achivement young man – savour the moment.
August 1st 2012 @ 9:30am
jameswm said | August 1st 2012 @ 9:30am | Report comment
The relay was after the 200 fly, not before.
August 1st 2012 @ 3:05pm
Ziggy said | August 1st 2012 @ 3:05pm | Report comment
Correct. I thought that Le Clos would have won quite easily if he had started his surge sooner or the race had gone on another couple of metres. He was clearly reeling Phelps in at a great rate of knots. However Phelps showed poor judgement in his glide in – way too over confident – and that cost him the gold medal.I don’t think he realised Le clos was that close or actually going to catch him.Incidentallythey are good mates but I thought Phelps showed poor attitude at the result. He recouped later but his true personality was clearly visible immediately he knew what had happened.
August 1st 2012 @ 9:30am
jameswm said | August 1st 2012 @ 9:30am | Report comment
Where is Brendon?
I want you to answer this – did Phelps choke in that 200 fly?
August 1st 2012 @ 10:32am
superba said | August 1st 2012 @ 10:32am | Report comment
Am so proud of Le Clos .a great win and against that legend Phelps.Thats two individual golds for SA in the pool.!!!!!
August 1st 2012 @ 5:50pm
Kelly said | August 1st 2012 @ 5:50pm | Report comment
Some idiot OZ commentator also commented that his Dad is fat and that Chad will have to watch out when he stops training. How mean? But expected from an Australian, they even called one of their own Aussie lady swimmers fat and out of shape. So typical. Now his Dad is super star after his BBC interview suck on that.
August 1st 2012 @ 8:42pm
biltongbek said | August 1st 2012 @ 8:42pm | Report comment
I didn’t see his interview, they didnt show it in SA after the swim, what did he have to say?
August 1st 2012 @ 9:22pm
Colin N said | August 1st 2012 @ 9:22pm | Report comment
It’s on the BBC website. I don’t know if you can watch it in South Africa but it’s worth trying – it’s brilliant!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/19072220
August 1st 2012 @ 9:27pm
yewonk said | August 1st 2012 @ 9:27pm | Report comment
his dad is a legend and so is he now. i cant find the link but i had it before.
August 1st 2012 @ 11:07pm
Joan said | August 1st 2012 @ 11:07pm | Report comment
Congrats to Le Clos how well you have done we are proud of you.
Pity the Commentators were so fixated with Phelps and his loss enough to make me mad
August 2nd 2012 @ 1:24am
7andabit said | August 2nd 2012 @ 1:24am | Report comment
What happened to all the Aussie swimmers? That medal table in the swimming looks like the Stormers trophy cabinet