Both Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte on US 4x200m freestyle relay squad

Phelps beat a loaded field that included rival Chad le Clos, who bested Phelps four years ago in London. Among Phelps’ (31 years, 41 days old) other accomplishments on the night, he became the oldest swimmer to win an individual gold medal in Olympic history (Netherlands’ Inge de Bruijn was 30 years, 363 days old in 2004), and he’s now the first athlete to win multiple gold medals in four different Olympic games.

Phelps out-touched Masato Sakai, who raced to a silver medal, by 0.04 seconds.

Phelps opened his fifth Olympics on Sunday night by helping the U.S.to gold in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay.

Reigning world champion Laszlo Cseh of Hungary and le Clos failed to live up to the Olympic expectations, finishing seventh and fourth, respectively.

The victory gives Phelps two gold medals in two swims in Rio and pushes his record total to 20.

Le Clos was in the final again, thoroughly inspired himself by his mother and father, both battling cancer and in the stands cheering him on. Even though the 100 free isn’t one of his specialties – he’s never swam it at the Olympics – he blazed down and back in a stunning 47.12 seconds, a time that was faster than all but the three anchors on the medal-winning teams, three of the best in the world at that distance.

The relay was much less dramatic.

Rio Olympic bronze medalist in the 200m freestyle Conor Dwyer will lead the relay, followed by Townley Haas.

It was then over to the 4x200m freestyle relay and a visibly exhausted Phelps somehow managed to close out a fine win for the United States of America quartet with Great Britain claiming the silver. That allowed le Clos to stunningly win gold in an event that Phelps had dominated for the better part of a decade. Maya DiRado of the United States held on for the bronze.