DK's Five Rings: More Phelps, more Ledecky, more gold in the pool

RIO DE JANEIRO — The greatest swimmer in human history got even greater, and the next great swimmer did likewise.

Michael Phelps won his record 20th and 21st Olympic golds in the 200-meter butterfly and the 4x200 relay Tuesday night at the Aquatics Stadium. He won the fly in 1:53.36, barely touching the wall .04 seconds ahead of Japan's Masato Sakai. He later anchored Conor Dwyer, Townley Haas and Ryan Lochte in the relay in 7:00.66, easily besting Great Britain and Japan.

And on the same night, as if to symbolize this on-the-scene passing of the torch, Katie Ledecky won her second gold here in the 200 free.

"We've got a lot of medals," Phelps said of the U.S. team, which now has 18 of its total 21 in swimming. "It's insane. It's mind-blowing. And we're not even halfway done yet."

Phelps had been overtaken by Hungary's Tamas Kenderesi on the final stretch of their preliminary heat earlier Tuesday, Kenderesi winning the heat by .16 seconds. It apparently was a tough moment for Phelps, who'd built his career on being the one who did precisely that, and that showed in his extraordinarily uncharacteristic reaction to winning the final when he raised both hands with a come-and-get-it gesture.

"I came into the pool on a mission, and the mission was accomplished," Phelps said.

Kenderesi took bronze at 1:53.62.

Phelps will have two more chances at gold, the 100 fly and 200 individual medley.

Ledecky got off to a sluggish start and was fifth -- yes, fifth -- after 50 meters. And then ...

"Once I hit the water, I was on auto-control," she said. "I got in the lead and wasn't about to let it go."

The young lady had the line of the day, too, when asked if she's the future of American swimming: "I'm kind of the present, too."

The other guy isn't exactly the past yet, either.

THE LOCALS

Meghan Klingenberg of Gibsonia was among the many regulars sat down by U.S. women's soccer coach Jill Ellis for the round-robin finale against Colombia, and the Americans paid for that lineup in the form of a 2-2 tie in Manaus.

The team's 2-0 record had already guaranteed a berth in the quarterfinals, but a 91st-minute bending free kick for the equalizer by Colombia's Catalina Usme deflated any upbeat sentiment.

"We're going to learn from this absolutely," keeper Hope Solo said after being caught flat-footed on the sequence. "We're going to watch a lot of footage on set-piece goals."

Klingenberg, a mainstay on the national team for her defensive work, didn't perform especially well in the first two matches here, especially the 1-0 victory Saturday over France, but Ellis gave no indication of anyone being benched on merit. Among those not starting was star striker Alex Morgan, though she came on as a second-half sub.

The Americans' quarterfinal will be against Sweden, noon Friday in the capital Brasilia.