Joseph Schooling sensationally upset Michael Phelps in the 100m butterfly on Friday to seize Singapore’s first ever Olympic gold medal at the Rio Games
Michael Phelps with 100m butterfly gold medal winner Joseph Schooling in Rio on Friday.
Rio de Janeiro: Joseph Schooling sensationally upset Michael Phelps in the 100m butterfly on Friday to seize Singapore’s first ever Olympic gold medal at the Rio Games.
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Michael Phelps with 100m butterfly gold medal winner Joseph Schooling in Rio on Friday. Pic/Getty Images
The 21-year-old Asian champion denied Olympic icon Phelps a fourth straight victory in the event, leading from start to finish to win in an Olympic record of 50.39sec.
Phelps, sixth at the turn, couldn’t pull off one of his trademark comebacks, but he had plenty of company on the second step of the podium as his longtime rival Laszlo Cseh of Hungary and South African Chad le Clos both matched his time of 51.14sec in an astonishing three-way tie for silver.
The only other three-way tie for Games silver came back in 1968, in the women’s speedskating 500m.\
Victory in Friday’s fly would have given Phelps a 14th individual Olympic title, but Schooling was too strong. He punched the water and bellowed as Phelps swam over to congratulate him.
Phelps, 31, insists he won’t be back for a sixth Olympics. But after winning four golds so far in Rio — in the 4x100m free and 4x200m free relays, the 200m butterfly and the 200m individual medley — he’ll have a shot at one more — it would be his 23rd — on Saturday in the 4x100m medley relay.