Michael Phelps won a gold medal on Tuesday, August 9 night, which is almost ordinary by now. It was his 20th Olympic gold, The New York Times reports.

To top it off, he added his 21st gold medal soon after, anchoring the 4x200 freestyle relay. Conor Dwyer, Townley Haas and Ryan Lochte swam the first three legs.

Phelps’s celebration after the 200 butterfly was loaded with meaning. This was the event in which Phelps endured one of the most painful defeats of his career: At the 2012 London Games, Chad le Clos of South Africa edged him by five-hundredths of a second.

Le Clos was in the lane next to Phelps on Tuesday night, one of five swimmers in the race who had at one time or another claimed Phelps as their childhood hero.

Phelps was the magnet that pulled the next generation into the sport, but at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium on Tuesday night he repelled their challenge. Phelps clocked a time of 1 minute 53.36 seconds.

Tamas Kenderesi, 19, of Hungary, had turned the tables on Phelps in the semifinals, passing him over the last 25 meters of their semifinal heat to beat him by 16 hundredths of a second. But the story was different in the final.

Masato Sakai of Japan was the surprise silver medalist and Kenderesi was third. Le Clos finished fourth.

Phelps exulted after his victory, wagging his finger, raising his arms and orchestrating the crowd’s response.

To win the 200 fly in his fifth Olympics, 16 years after he finished fifth in the event in his Olympics debut was sublime, Phelps said. “Couldn’t have scripted it any better,” he said.