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Tribune news services2:34 p.m. CDT, August 2, 2012
LONDON -- Michael Phelps became the first male swimmer to win the same event at three successive Olympics when he claimed the men's 200-meter individual medley gold medal at the London Games on Thursday.Phelps, who won the event at the Athens and Beijing Games, relegated teammate and world champion Ryan Lochte to silver while Hungary's Laszlo Cseh took bronze.
The victory gave Phelps his 16th Olympic gold medal and 20th overall in his career.
Only two swimmers had won the same individual event at three Olympics, Australia's Dawn Fraser, in 100 freestyle in 1956, 1960 and 1964, and Hungary's Krisztina Egerszegi in 200 backstroke in 1988, 1992 and 1996.
It is a feat that had eluded generations of the best male swimmers until Phelps, who had the chance of doing it in four different events in London.
He came in fourth in the 400 individual medley and looked to achieve the feat in his favored 200 butterfly but was edged by South Africa's Chad le Clos on the final stroke.
