Video: Michael Phelps Does The Finger Wag After Winning 20th Gold Medal
Michael Phelps took home his 20th career Olympics gold medal, and right after, he followed in fellow U.S. swimmer Lilly King's footsteps: he broke out the finger wag.
Just minutes after Katie Ledecky won gold in the 200-meter women's freestyle, Phelps took home the 200-meter men's butterfly. After the dramatic victory, Phelps finger wagged in the direction of Chad le Clos, his rival swimmer from South Africa.
Michael Phelps and Chad le Clos have been embroiled in a war of words over the last few years. The South African upset Phelps in this same event at the 2012 London Summer Olympics. When Phelps returned to the pool in 2014, after originally saying he would not race in the 200-meter butterfly, he changed his mind, citing a lack of top competition in the event.
In response, le Clos had this to say after winning the 100-meter butterfly gold at the 2015 World Championships. From Swim Swam:
“Michael Phelps has been talking about how slow the butterfly events have been recently. I just did a time he hasn’t done in four years. So he can keep quiet now.”
Phelps topped that time later in the day, and the two continued to trade barbs. New York Magazine, on the next exchange in the rivalry:
Hours later, Phelps bested le Clos’s time in the 100-meter butterfly. “There are a lot of things I could say. But I won’t,” he said after the race. “I’m going to let what I do in the pool do my talking.”
Le Clos continued to let his mouth do the talking. “I’m just very happy that he’s back to his good form, so he can’t come out and say, ‘Oh, I haven’t been training,’ or all that rubbish that he’s been talking,” le Clos said, referencing Phelps’s claims that he didn’t really try in London.
On Monday, a photo of Phelps reacting to taunts from le Close ahead of a semifinal heat went viral. Which leads us to tonight. Phelps picked up his 20th Olympic gold in his fifth Summer Games, le Clos failed to medal, and Phelps took a page out of King's book.
If you enter the pool this Olympics, and an American swimmer takes exception with something you've done, you will probably lose, and you will get finger wagged. Let it be known.
