As the most decorated Olympian of all time, Michael Phelps continued to ramp up his already astonishing resume with an unprecedented second Olympic three-peat and another title defense. Rallying from seventh at the halfway turn, he produced a remarkable swim over the rest of the field to claim his seventeenth gold and twenty-first career medal in 51.21.[2][3] Trailing behind Phelps by 0.23 seconds, South Africa's Chad le Clos and Russia's Yevgeny Korotyshkin tied for the silver in a matching time of 51.44.[4][5]
Leading early at the turn, Serbia's Milorad Čavić, who famously lost to Phelps in Beijing four years earlier by a fingertip, faded down the stretch to match Germany's Steffen Deibler with a fourth-place time in 51.81.[6] Netherlands' Joeri Verlinden (51.82), U.S. swimmer Tyler McGill (51.88), and Poland's Konrad Czerniak (52.05) also vied for an Olympic medal to round out a historic finish.[5]
Austria's Dinko Jukic (51.99), fourth-place finalist in the 200 m butterfly few days earlier; and Kenya's Jason Dunford (52.16), fifth in Beijing, missed the final roster after placing ninth and sixteenth respectively in the semifinals.[7] Other notable swimmers featured Japan's Takeshi Matsuda, who elected not to do a swimoff with Germany's Benjamin Starke (a matching time of 52.36) on the morning prelims; his teammate Takuro Fujii (52.49) and Papua New Guinea's Ryan Pini (52.68), both of whom finished sixth and eighth in Beijing; and Sweden's 2000 champion Lars Frölander, who posted a twentieth-place time of 52.47 in his sixth Olympics.[8][9]
Records
Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were:
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