Michael Phelps won two golds in Rio – taking his total medal tally to 25
US swimmer, competing in his fifth Olympics, won 20th and 21sts golds
Former party animal, 31, was in rehab for substance abuse just last year
He celebrated his latest victories with his fiancee and newborn son
To thunderous roars in Rio’s aquatic centre yesterday, Michael Phelps cemented his title as the greatest Olympian of all time, winning two golds to take his remarkable Olympic medal tally to 25.
In 60 minutes of sporting drama and brilliance, the freakish 31-year-old American swimmer – competing in his fifth Olympics – won his 20th and 21st gold medals with the chance of three more to come this week.
What makes the achievement even more remarkable is that the former party animal was in rehab for substance abuse only last year, had been banned from swimming and came out of retirement to compete in Rio.
The glowing headlines which will greet him today will be in marked contrast to those telling the sordid story of his marijuana smoking and champagne-fuelled binges.
On one occasion, he was pictured taking a deep breath as he clutched on to a bong, used to smoke marijuana, before inhaling the class B drug.
On another, he was arrested after leaving a casino and racing home at 85mph in a 45mph zone in his Range Rover – almost two times over the legal limit.
The incident marked Phelps’s second drink-driving offence in ten years and led to a stint in rehab, sessions with Alcoholics Anonymous as well as a six-month suspension from swimming.
The one-time American hero was close to going to jail and a judge warned him he was ‘powerless over alcohol’.
After walking free from court, as if foreseeing what was to come, Phelps said: ‘I’m looking ahead at a much better, brighter future than what I’ve had in the past.’
That future, he was determined, would include the chance to avenge a rare Olympic defeat – South African Chad Le Clos’s fingertip victory in the 200m butterfly in London four years ago.
Everyone at the Rio poolside and many of the estimated 100 million-strong TV audience knew that for the man dubbed the ‘Baltimore Bullet’, last night’s race was special. It had been billed as the ‘showdown in Rio’ and was the hottest ticket in town.
Just 1min 52.36secs later, Phelps had once again proved unbeatable, using his massive 6ft 7in ‘wing-span’ to power to victory and leaving Le Clos out of the medals in fourth.
As Phelps touched first after leading throughout, there was a deafening roar and then a collective intake of breath from spectators at the brilliance of the win.
He sat on a lane rope, egging on the roaring crowd with both hands, before pumping his fist in the air. ‘There was so much emotion and so much build-up for that race,’ Phelps said.
‘I don’t want to say it’s revenge, but that’s what it was.’ He has apparently never forgiven Le Clos for prizing away ‘his’ title by five-hundredths of a second in one of the most memorable races of the London Games.
‘That event is kind of like my bread and butter,’ he said. ‘That was the last time I’ll ever swim it. There wasn’t a shot in hell I was losing that race. And if I did, I was leaving everything in the pool.’
His celebrations and obvious relief added to the theatre as he kissed his son Boomer, fiancée Nicole Johnson, a former Miss California, and mother Deborah.
With tears running down her cheeks, Miss Johnson, with whom Phelps has been in an on-off relationship since 2007, passed the baby over to his father while the Olympian’s mother leaned over the railings weeping with joy.
Remarkably, just an hour later Phelps was back in the pool to anchor the USA team in the 4x200m freestyle relay, winning his 21st gold and consigning Team GB to silver.
If Phelps were a country he would be 40th in the all-time gold medal winners’ table – above the likes of Jamaica, Argentina and Austria. By the end of the week he could be above hosts Brazil.
The 6ft 4in Phelps, who has size 14 feet and was once so scared of putting his head in the water that instructors allowed him to float on his back, was the youngest American male swimmer to appear at an Olympics in 68 years when selected as a 15-year-old for Sydney in 2000.
At Athens in 2004, his haul of six gold and two bronze medals was hailed as one of the ‘most amazing performances in Olympic swimming history’. Four years later in Beijing he was even better, winning all eight events.
In London, he won four gold medals and two silvers and announced his retirement. His medal tally is now 25 – a total that will probably never be surpassed.
Storytelling by Morris Hayes Jr 