Think you’ve had a long day? Try being Michael Phelps

If he feels greedy, there is more potential gold for Phelps in the 100m fly and the 200m individual medley – events he has incredibly won at the past three Olympics.

Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu landed her third gold with victory in the women’s 400 individual medley, beating Madeline Dirado of the US (4:31.15) and Mireia Belmonte Garcia of Spain in (4:32.39) a new world-record time of 4:26.36. This, of course, took Phelps’ tally to 21.

Majestically seizing two more golds, Phelps was the buzz of the Games on Tuesday – even more than the speculation over why the water in the Olympic diving pool turned mysteriously green overnight.

Uh oh. When NBC ran a split screen picture of an inert Phelps in the waiting area while introducing the women competing in the 200-meter freestyle race, the fear was that the network was firing up the hype again.

It was South Africa’s le Clos who pipped him to gold in London, inflicting a shock defeat on the American who had won the event in 2004 and 2008.

He did leave every ounce of energy in the pool, staving off a storming finish from Japan’s Masato Sakai to win by just four hundredths of a second.

He laughed out loud on the podium, amused by friends in the crowd shouting out the familiar “O” for the Baltimore Orioles baseball team while the USA basketball team looked on, and kissed the medal.

With challengers all around, Phelps simply wouldn’t be denied. Before the race began, the crowd expressed support to the American contender, by chanting his name. The American probably forgot about such a bitter loss when he heard the crowd crying in unison “20! 20! 20!”

In the relay, the bulk of the drama for Phelps came on the pool deck, where he ripped his swim cap just before it was his turn to swim.

This was another performance for the ages, but Phelps has done it so many times that nothing else would have been fitting. It was an honorable night for sport and swimming.

Conor Dwyer even gave Phelps his hat after Phelps’ split.

Ledecky also claimed silver in the 4×100 free relay and has two more races to go, setting herself up for a medal haul that would fully live up to the enormous expectations she faced coming into the Olympics. Phelp’s baby, Boomer, was among the crowd alongside members of the United States of America basketball team. He also referred to what means competing along with the South African contender, Le Clos.

Phelps went out hard, took the lead at 100 meters and hung on down the stretch in Tuesday night’s final to win in 1:53.36, punctuating an hour’s worth of action that saw some of the most thrilling racing in Olympic history. Image credit: QZ.”I’m obviously excited for the finals”.

“Pretty sure that’s the closest I’ve come to throwing up in the middle of a race”, Ledecky said.