From Yahoo! News – After Five Golds, Phelps Bows Out of Relay
Michael Phelps (news – web sites) is done for the Olympics. Shortly after winning his fifth gold medal and seventh overall, Phelps told U.S. men’s coach Eddie Reese that he wanted to give up his spot on the butterfly leg of the 400-meter medley relay team to Ian Crocker.
Phelps, who already swam in the morning preliminaries on the medley relay, earned a right to swim the final by beating Crocker in the 100 fly Friday night by a minuscule four-hundredths of a second. But Phelps said he would cede his coveted spot in the final to Crocker.
“We came into this meet as a team and we’re going to leave it as a team,” Phelps said. “It’s the right thing to do.”
Update: As a note, Michael will get the same metal as the rest of the team as he was part of the preliminary qualifying team.