Phelps beat Masato Sakai by 0.04 seconds in the 2016 Olympic men’s 200-metre butterfly final.
Phelps touched the wall in 1:53.36, while Sakai finished in 1:53.40. The difference was only four hundredths of a second, making the race one of the tightest victories of Phelps’s Olympic career. Sakai had been sixth at the 150-metre mark but surged over the final 50 metres and nearly caught the American.
The victory gave Phelps his 20th Olympic gold medal and his 25th Olympic medal overall. He had returned to the event after losing the 200-metre butterfly to Chad le Clos at the 2012 London Games, so the Rio final also carried a strong element of redemption.
Sakai’s late challenge did not quite produce an upset: Hungary’s Tamás Kenderesi was third in 1:53.62, 0.22 seconds behind Sakai. Chad le Clos finished fourth in 1:54.06. The margin is sometimes confused with the gap between Phelps and Kenderesi, but the question asks specifically about the silver medalist.