In 2016, American swimmer Michael Phelps swam 1:53.36 to win the men’s 200m butterfly gold medal at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics. Phelps beat Japan’s Masato Sakai by 0.04 and claimed his 20th Olympic gold medal. The most prolific Olympic swimmer and winningest athlete of the Olympic games retired with an incredible 23 gold, three silver, and two bronze medals. Phelps began his Olympic career at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens at age 15, the youngest man on the U.S. Olympic swim team in 68 years. Phelps won six gold and two bronze medals in Athens. The following 2008 Beijing Olympics, Phelps went perfect winning gold in all eight of his events. The 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio marked Phelps as the most successful athlete of the games for the fourth time in a row. Phelps announced his retirement following the Rio Olympics and is currently an Olympic correspondent for NBC at the 2020 Tokyo Games.
Today in Sports History: August 9
