Gold Standard
Sports Illustrated|December 26,2016

The Greatest olympian Ever.

Tim Layden
Gold Standard

ON THE NIGHT OF AUG. 7, a Sunday in Rio de Janeiro, Michael Phelps swam the first race of his fifth and (Definitely! Probably. Maybe?) final Olympics. He churned through the pale-blue water of a 50-meter pool inside an arena that, like much of the surreal Games of 2016, seemed not quite ready. Construction materials lay in piles just beyond the perimeter fencing, and flimsy banners dangled from the ceiling. For more than two weeks, Brazil’s Games would hang by a thread, organized on a budget of pennies and prayer.

They were the Olympics that barely happened, in a country that, like so many others, could not truly afford them. But they would be saved by athletes, and Phelps would do more of the saving than most.

He swam the second leg of the 4×100- meter freestyle relay, the first of his six races. Caeleb Dressel, a 19-year-old rising junior at Florida, led off the event, which the U.S. once dominated but had not won in the Olympics since 2008. Dressel touched the wall second just behind Mehdy Metella of France, the defending Olympic gold medalists. Phelps dived in and had drawn even by the turn. He flipped over,pressed his feet against the tiles and pushed away. He remained underwater for six seconds, pinning his arms over his head, squeezing his legs together and undulating his 6' 4" body in seven repetitions of a dolphin kick. It is aptly named; a swimmer in the midst of this transitional stroke appears to cross species, rolling his lower body, hips to toes, for propulsion the way a dolphin hurtles through the ocean. One by one, the racers surfaced, until only Phelps remained wholly submerged.

This story is from the December 26,2016 edition of Sports Illustrated.

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This story is from the December 26,2016 edition of Sports Illustrated.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.