Golden Run Continues: Michael Phelps Swells Medals Tally to 21
2012 London Summer Olympics
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London, England
The disappointment of the first couple of races now firmly behind him, Michael Phelps once again hit the golden run at the Aquatics Center and that spelled a windfall for him and the United States.
With the six feet four inches tall swimmer grabbing global attention after becoming the most successful athlete in the history of the Olympic Games, he has now embarked on a journey to set the benchmark so high that no mortal can exceed the feat.
On Friday night, a day after bagging his 20th Olympic medal -- in 200m individual medley and swelling his gold medal to 16 -- the champion rallied to bag the 100m butterfly title and in the process became the first swimmer in history to win three consecutive gold in the event.
Phelps' 17th gold on Friday, took his medals tally to 21 and with one last race to go, he looks set to go down in Olympic history in a blaze of glory. It wasn't quite a thrilling race, unlike Beijing (2008) where the American beat Milorad Cavic by one-hundredth of a second or when he overcame Ian Crocker in Athens (2004) by four-hundredths of a second.
Phelps told the media, "This was a bigger margin of victory than the last two combined, so we can smile and be happy." Phelps won in a time of 51.21sec, while South Africa's Chad le Clos and Russian Evgeny Korotyshkin shared the silver, timing 51.44.
Seventeen-year-old American teenager, Missy Franklin, aiming to do a Phelps in her swimming career, heralded the new generation of American swimmers, bagging the backstroke double with a 200m world record to boot on Friday. The teenager timed 2min 04.06secs to improve upon the mark of 2:04.81 held by Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry.
With three gold at the London Games -- 100m and 200m backstroke and 4x200m freestyle relay -- Franklin has emerged as the frontrunner for maximum titles in the pool. And she is dedication all her wins for the cause of the families of all those people who were killed in the Aurora shootout July 20.
She was quoted as saying that with so many new faces in the American squad, the good work done by the "incredible generation" shall not be frittered in the future. But she conceded that it would be an extremely hard to match up to the exalting standards they had set. Anastasia Zueva of Russia won the silver in 2:05.92, while American Elizabeth Beisel took the bronze in 2:06.55.
Earlier on Thursday, Phelps had served up a feast in 200m individual medley, winning the event in 1min 54.27sec to grab his 20th career Olympic medal. He left his rival and compatriot, Ryan Lochte -- winner of the 400 individual medley -- far behind to settle for silver in 1:54.90. Hungarian Laszlo Cseh earned bronze in 1:56.22.
Though this was Phelps' first individual gold of the London Games, there were no wild celebrations in the pool -- instead a casual smile in the direction of his mother, sitting in the spectators' gallery, was all Phelps dished out after his feat.
American Rebecca Soni provided the fireworks before the Phelps-Lochte duel, becoming the first woman to breach the 2min20sec barrier in women's 200m breaststroke. She timed 2min 19.59sec to improve upon her world record time of 2:20.00 set in the semifinals on Wednesday. Japan's Satomi Suzuki grabbed silver in 2:20.72, while Russia's Yuliya Efimova settled for bronze in 2:20.92.
Michael Phelps won the 100-meter butterfly at the London Games on Friday for the record 17th gold and 21st medal overall in his Olympic career
Golden Run Continues: Michael Phelps Swells Medals Tally to 21
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