200 metres Individual Medley, Men

Michael Phelps came into London heralded as the swimming GOAT (greatest of all-time), and was attempting to three-peat in four individual events in London, the 100 and 200 butterfly, and the 200 and 400 individual medleys. But he had already failed to medal in the 400 IM and was out-touched in the 200 fly for a silver medal. In this event he was facing his teammate Ryan Lochte, who had beaten him to win the 2011 World Championships in the 200 IM and had won the 400 IM in London. But Phelps left no doubt in this race as to who was The King.

Phelps went ahead on the opening butterfly leg, no surprise as that is his best stroke. But he maintained it on the backstroke, Lochte’s best individual stroke, and on his weakest leg, the breaststroke, Phelps held off Brazil’s Thiago Pereira, silver medalist behind Lochte in the 400 IM. As they entered the final freestyle leg, Phelps had a bodylength lead and with his freestyle strength, the race was over. He won in 1:54.27 to become the first male swimmer to three-peat in any individual Olympic event, with Lochte closing fast for the silver medal. In third was Hungary’s László Cseh, Jr., who had placed second in this event in 2008.

Phelps three-peat was the third in Olympic swimming in an individual event, after Australian Dawn Fraser in the 100 freestyle in 1956-64, and Hungarian Krisztina Egerszegi in the 100 backstroke in 1988-96. The podium for this event had the same three swimmers as in Beijing, with Phelps winning in 2008, Cseh second, and Lochte third. This was only the 7th time in Olympic history that this had occurred, but it was the first time in swimming.