Hey everyone. Pay attention. You’re legit witnessing something that will probably never be seen again (at least not in this lifetime).
The United States‘ swimming phenom Michael Phelps just took out Gold in the 200m butterfly to claim his twentieth Olympic Gold Medal.
Twenty.
Twenty gold medals.
All won by him.
Not only is that now the most by any individual in Olympic history, it’s more than double the next best.
On the list of all-time Olympic gold medal winners, Phelps sits along atop the table. Then there’s daylight. And then there’s a four-way tie between Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina, Finnish track & field athlete Paavo Nurmi, and American duo Mark Spitz and Carl Lewis. They all have nine.
In fact, how’s this. If Michael Phelps were his own country, he would now rank as the 40th most successful nation in games history.
He, by himself, has more gold medals than Austria, Argentina, Jamaica, India, Ireland, Mexico, Thailand, or Croatia.
And in winning today’s 200m butterfly final, fending off Japan’s Masato Sakai by a fingernail, Phelps also becomes the oldest person to ever win an individual swimming gold medal at an Olympics. At 31-years-old, he is just the second person over the age of 30 to rake one in.
Unbelievably, he might not even be done there, either. Phelps still has the 4x200m freestyle relay and the 100m butterfly left on his Rio agenda.
I don’t know about you, but he’s feeling 22.
Not bad for a bong-ripping ledge. Not bad at all.
Photo: Clive Rose/Getty.
