Once again, the gold medal in the 200-meter butterfly stroke belongs to Phelps. 20th gold of his career only added to the satisfaction. Phelps held off Japan's Masato Sakai by a mere four-hundredths of a second. The winning time was 1 minute, 53.36 seconds.

“When I was on the block I thought my heart was going to explode out of my chest,” Phelps said. “I was so hyped tonight, so excited.”

Michael Phelps won his 20th and 21st Olympic gold medals and he still has three more events to go. Michael Phelps bagged the 21st gold medal of his incredible Olympic career, anchoring the United States to victory in the 4x200m freestyle relay.

Phelps, who barely 15 minutes earlier had produced a superb victory in the 200m butterfly, led the United States home for a win in 7min 0.66sec after Conor Dwyer, Townley Haas and Ryan Lochte built up a huge lead after the first three legs.

Great Britain's quartet took the silver medal while Japan's men won bronze.

The America’s most decorated athlete in Olympic history, added to his staggering title tally by overpowering the South African in the Rio final, clocking 1min 53.36sec.

Le Clos, the defending champion, faded badly in the final 50m and finished out of the medals as Japan's Masato Sakai came through for a surprise silver in 1:53.40 with Hungary's Tamas Kenderesi taking bronze in 1:53.62.

United States star Katie Ledecky bagged her second gold medal of the Olympic Games on Tuesday after powering to victory in the women's 200m freestyle.

Ledecky, who has shattered the 400m freestyle world record by winning gold, was second at the 100m mark, but had moved into first at the final turn, holding off Sweden's Sarah Sjostrom with Australia's Emma McKeon claiming bronze.

Ledecky touched in 1min 53.73sec and is two-thirds of the way to a rare treble. She can become the first Olympian since Debbie Meyer in Mexico City in 1968 to sweep the 200m, 400m and 800m freestyles.

By Premji