Rio 2016 Olympics day four highlight: Michael Phelps is the GOAT

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Well folks, they are who we thought they were, and they went out and dominated. Who is “they” you might be asking? Simple: by “they” I mean “he” – Michael Phelps – the man otherwise known as the most decorated Olympian of all-time, as he continues his quest to unadulterated Rio dominance, with two medal-eligible events happening over the course of a two hour span on Day 4, making Michael Phelps the easy pick as the highlight of the fourth day of competition at the Olympics.

Prior to the Olympics’ Opening, the main story coming out of Team USA was Michael Phelps’ potential victory lap in Rio before riding off into the sunset. He already won gold in the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay, and he was up for another two on Tuesday, in the men’s 4×200 freestyle relay and Phelps’ signature event, the 200m butterfly. First up in the day for Phelps was the 200m butterfly, which would mark his final run of this event, and if won, would give Phelps and incredible 20 (!) gold medals. While Phelps was the biggest name in the competition, he was not necessarily touted as the favorite – that title was held by none other than Phelps Face recipient, Chad le Clos, of Sout Africa.

Nevertheless, Michael Phelps managed to eek out a victory in the 200m butterfly, just narrowly beating out Japanese swimmer Masato Sakai by four one-hundreths of a second. And in truly karmic reinforcing fashion, Chad le Clos – the event favorite and gyrating provocateur who helped spawn the Phelps Face – failed to medal at all, beaten out by Hungarian Tamas Kenderesi, and was the recipient of a finger wag from Phelps, as the American reminded the South African swimmer who the true King of the pool was.

The second half of Phelps’ day was just as productive, if not more dramatic than beating his arch rival le Clos. Just over an hour after his 200m individual final, Phelps had to prepare to swim the anchor leg of the men’s 4x200m freestyle alongside Conor Dwyer, Townley Hass, and Ryan Lochte. In the middle of the race right before Phelps would take to the water, his swim cap ripped as he was trying to put it on. After a brief moment of horror, Phelps used teammate Dwyer’s – who had already swum his portion – cap, and eventually, the USA came out with gold, bringing Phelps’ career gold total to 21, with three coming at these Rio Olympics. Michael Phelps is the GOAT, and with two more events remaining, we could be looking at a 5 for 5 sweep to put Phelps at 23 gold medals when its all said and done.

This article originally appeared on MensTrait.com as Rio 2016 Olympics day 4 highlight – Michael Phelps is the GOAT.