The race had been dubbed the end of an era, with Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte swimming the men's 200-meter individual medley against each other for what was expected to be the last time at the Olympics. The race quickly turned into another coronation of Phelps as he absolutely smoked the field for his 22nd career gold medal, fourth straight in this event and fourth gold while in Rio.

Lochte ended up finishing a surprising fifth, which took some of the shine off of the "friendly rivalry" angle the race was supposed to provide. But leave it to Phelps to elevate the drama by merely dominating once again and proving his status as the greatest Olympian of all time.

Hey Michael Phelps, how many golds have you won in the 200m IM? USATSI

As expected, Twitter was full of Phelps plaudits and people just losing their minds over just how dominant a swim that was.