When Michael Phelps emerged on the Olympic swimming scene in 2000, he was just a 15-year-old teenager. However, he made clear through his performance that he was going to be a force to be reckoned with throughout his career. While Phelps did not win any medals during the 2000 Sydney Games, he amassed a total of 28 Olympic medals during his career. Thus, he is the most decorated swimmer in the history of the sport. He has had several special wins, but one particular took all the brownie points.

The 2016 Rio Olympics were unusual, to say the least. Miraculous could be a more apt description. Michael Phelps earlier announced his retirement after the 2012 London Games. However, he made a surprise comeback at Rio and found himself in the middle of a three-way tie. Surprisingly, his historic win in 2016 was replicated at the World Aquatics Championships 2023, when three swimmers found themselves in a tie for the silver.

Swimming history repeats itself at World Championships

The World Aquatics Championships started with a bang on Day 1. World records were broken left, right, and center. The intensity was high, and the air was electric. It seems like Day 1 inspired the athletes to keep up the momentum because Day 2 was filled with happy surprises as well. In an astonishing outcome, three men tied for the silver in the men’s 100m breaststroke finals.

The Chinese swimmer Qin Haiyang is making waves at the 2023 World Championships. He has clinched three Asian records till now and also bagged the gold in men’s 100m breaststroke finals with a time of 57.69. However, there was a three-way tie for the silver medal, just like there was at the 2016 Rio Olympics. During the World Championships, Nic Fink, Nicolo Martinenghi, and Arno Kamminga got a tie for second place after posting the same time of 58.72.

Read more: “It’s Been a Hell of a Career”: Swimming Legend Michael Phelps Broke an Age-Old Record Just Before His Retirement in 2016

According to a report by Swim Swam, this tie is the first tie in seven years after the tie that took place at the 2016 Rio Olympics. In 2016, Michael Phelps shared the silver medal in the men’s 100 m butterfly with Chad le Clos of South Africa and Laszlo Cseh of Hungary. That was the first time in history that three athletes had tied for the same medal on the global Olympics stage. Although, for the Rio Games, it felt completely unsurprising.

Michael Phelps and Rio 2016: What went down

Before Phelps tied with two other swimmers for the silver in the 100m butterfly, two other similar situations had already occurred at Rio. The Olympics have a history of two athletes vying for the same position on the podium. The first tie recorded in history occurred in 1984 when the Netherlands’ Annemarie Verstappen and the US’s Nancy Hogshead both completed the women’s 100-meter freestyle in 55.92 seconds. In 2016, in addition to the Phelps-Cseh-le Clos split, women came in at the same position in two events.

As Michael Phelps tied with Chad le Clos and Laszlo Cseh, Joseph Schooling of Singapore defeated all three to clinch the gold. That year, Phelps managed to get a time of 51.14 in the 100 fly, an event that he had won in his last three Olympic Games. Nonetheless, Michael Phelps had an interesting ending to his career with the three-way tie. According to a report by USA Today, Phelps’ reaction to the win was, “It is a wild way to end my individual career. It is just wild.” However, we are used to the 23-time gold medalist making history, and this was just another notch for the books.

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