Michael Phelps wins 21st Olympic gold medal
Last Updated: 10/08/16 10:59am
Michael Phelps won a 21st Olympic gold medal in the men's 4x200m relay, an hour after claiming his 20th in the 200m butterfly.
Phelps teamed with Conor Dwyer, Townley Haas and Ryan Lochte to take the team gold in 7:00.66, three seconds ahead of the British team, to add the title to the individual one he won earlier in the night.
That came when he avenged his London 2012 loss to South African Chad Le Clos, reclaiming his title with a block-to-wall victory in 1:53.36 seconds on Tuesday.
Masato Sakai of Japan threatened to come from behind to upset the American, finishing four one-hundredths of a second behind in second.
Hungary's Tamas Kenderesi took bronze in 1:53.62 as Le Clos finished outside the medals in fourth in 1:54.06.
Phelps already had one other gold from Rio - his 19th, which came in the 4x100m freestyle relay on Saturday - and now has 25 medals in total.
"That's a lot of medals," he said. "It's just insane. It's mind-blowing. I wanted that one back. I came into the pool tonight with a mission and the mission was accomplished.
"Looking forward to the rest of the week and I'm not even halfway done yet."
In the women's 200m freestyle, Katie Ledecky won her second individual gold of the Games and stay on track for a rare treble.
Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden took the silver medal while Emma McKeon of Australia won bronze.
