Michael Phelps has had an emotional week, and he let it show on the podium after winning his 20th career Olympic gold medal.
Late-career Michael Phelps may be the best Michael Phelps of all. He is still unbelievably great at his sport, still quantifiably superhuman, but he is a few years past his deity days and suddenly people think it's okay to mess with him.
Don't ever mess with Phelps. Chad le Clos learned that the hard way Tuesday night. After starting some wholly unnecessary beef with Phelps on Monday, le Clos didn't even finish on the podium as Phelps went on to win the men's 200-meter butterfly, earning his 20th career Olympic gold medal and tying an Olympic record that dates back to Leonidas of Rhodes in 152 B.C.
It has to have been an emotional week for Phelps. Having been mostly out of the public eye for four years, many wondered whether he would still be the freakishly talented human we know him as. His rivals were questioning him, too, and suddenly Phelps had real negativity to overcome about his career.
Which is why it's kind of nice to see him tear up, reminding us that superhumans are still subset of humans, and not, like, alien lifeforms we get to gawk at every once in a while. Tuesday seemed to mean a lot to him, and that's really sweet.
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