Having won the last three gold medals in the 4x200 freestyle relay, the United States was the clear favorite to win the race Tuesday night with Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps swimming the last two legs. The Americans extended their streak to four straight gold medals with the event, winning by three-plus seconds with Great Britain taking the silver medal.
WATCH: U.S. 4x200 relay team receives their gold medals
Lochte have been part of all four of those gold medal-winning teams, but the leg that put the United States in a commanding position was the one swam by Texas sophomore Townley Haas. Swimming the second leg, Haas finished his 200 meters in 1:44.14. That gave Lochte and Phelps an incredible margin to work with, as Phelps had already won the 200 butterfly earlier Tuesday night.
MORE: U.S. wins 4x200m freestyle relay for Phelps’ 21st gold
Great Britain, which last won a medal in this event in 1984, finished in 7:03.13. Japan took the bronze with a time of 7:03.50, with Australia finishing fourth.
Phelps has now won a total of 25 Olympic medals in his illustrious career, with 21 of them being gold, and Lochte has now won 12 total Olympic medals. Also receiving gold medals, as a result of their swimming in the preliminary heats, are Clark Smith, Jack Conger, Gunnar Bentz.
