At the USA Swimming Columbus Grand Prix in Ohio yesterday, Michael Phelps won the 200 butterfly in 1:55.32, bettering the 4-year-old meet record of 1:57.40 that Kaio Almeida swam in 2008. The 200 fly is just 1 of 4 individual events that Phelps has won gold in at both the 2004 and 2008 Olympics (the others being the 100 butterfly, the 200 IM and the 400 IM), but the one that Phelps himself has named as his ‘signature event’. If Phelps should win one of these at the London Olympics, he will be the first male swimmer ever to win individual gold medals for the same event at three successive Olympics (Dawn Fraser and Krisztina Egerszegi having done it in the women’s division).
