Each Olympic games brings something different and exciting to fans and viewers everywhere, and swimming in Rio surely wasn't short of either. The 2016 Olympic swimming competition was filled with rivalry, controversy, new Olympic debuts, veterans and, of course, insanely fast swimming. In case you missed any of the action, here are some of the highlights from swimming at these summer Olympic games.

1. Katinka Hosszu, a.k.a "the Iron Lady," completely smashed the previous world record in the 400 I.M. and won gold for Hungary.

Katinka Hosszu has truly proven herself to be the Iron Lady at these Olympic games. Hosszu not only won gold, but annihilated the rest of the field while doing so and captured the world record by over two seconds. Hosszu left Rio with three gold medals and one silver.

2. The Lilly King/Yulia Efimova showdown.

A little back story to go along with this: Yulia Efimova of Russia had previously tested positive to banned substances twice, once in 2014 and again in 2016. Efimova was initially banned from participation in these Olympic games, however, the International Olympic Committee overturned this ban.

Efimova raced in the first of two semifinals of the 100 breaststroke, which she won and lifted a finger to symbolize her top time. Rival Lilly King was caught on camera wagging a finger back at Efimova from the ready room as if to say, "not so fast."

After King raced in the second semifinal, where she was 0.02 seconds faster than Efimova, she said in an interview with NBC, "you wave your finger number one and you’ve been caught drug cheating…I’m not a fan." King went on to win gold for team USA, while Efimova took silver. What would the Olympics be without a little drama??

3. Katie Ledecky just being Katie Ledecky.

Katie Ledecky continues to leave everyone who watches her swim in complete and utter disbelief. Ledecky captured five medals total, four gold and one silver, and she's the first woman since 1968 to win the 200, 400 and 800 freestyles. She also anchored both the 4x200 and 4x100 free relays, which won gold and silver respectively. You'd think it was impressive enough that Ledecky, a distance swimmer, was even on the sprint relay, but she went ahead and impressed us further by swimming the fastest time of all her teammates. Ledecky has officially proven herself to be the most dominant female freestyler of all time.

4. Michael Phelps being Michael Phelps (and the face that launched 1,000 memes).

After loosing his specialty race, the 200 butterfly, in London to Chad Le Clos of South Africa, Phelps was out for blood in Rio. Besides the fact that Phelps did indeed re-capture his gold medal and Le Clos didn't even end up medaling in that event, Le Clos tried desperately to taunt Phelps in the ready room before the semifinal of the race. Le Clos was caught on camera shadowboxing right in front of Phelps, who sat there with quite the look on his face. And thus, "the Phelps face" was born.

Phelps finished his final Olympic games with six medals, five gold and one silver. He's the most decorated Olympian of all time with 28 Olympic medals, 23 of which are gold. His career-ending swim was one that won gold, as it should be, in the 4x100 medley relay. The swimming world truly won't be the same without the GOAT.

5. Rookie Olympian Townley Haas swam the fastest split in the entire pool in the 4x200 free relay.

What was so impressive about Haas's Olympic debut was not that he placed fifth in the world in the 200 free at age 19, but the fact that in the 4x200 free relay, his split time of 1:44.14 was the fastest of every single swimmer that swam the event, including his teammates and Olympic veterans Conor Dwyer, Ryan Lochte and Phelps. Haas's swim is also now one of the top five fastest 200 free relay splits ever swam.

6. Simone Manuel tied for gold with Canadian Penny Oleksiak in the 100 free.

Everyone could tell that Simone Manuel and Penny Oleksiak were surprised and overjoyed when they looked up at the scoreboard and realized that they had won gold. They also broke the Olympic record and Manuel is now the first African American female swimmer to ever win gold in an Olympic event.

7. Maya Dirado shocked every single person watching by upsetting Katinka Hosszu and winning the 200 backstroke.

Katinka Hosszu was the clear favorite to win this event and she led the race the entire way until about the last 20 meters, where Maya Dirado caught Hosszu and just out-touched her for gold. Hosszu may still be the Iron Lady, but Dirado's win was extremely exciting and made everyone watching jump out of their chairs and smile.

8. Phelps THREE WAY TIED for silver in his last individual Olympic event ever.

This was the first three way tie in Olympic history, and according to this swimswam article, it was a perfect way for Phelps to finish his last individual event ever. Also, the four medalists looked hilariously cute laughing about the three way tie and Joseph Schooling winning the first ever gold medal for Singapore.

9. Anthony Ervin now has two individual Olympic golds that were won 16 years apart.

Ervin won his first gold at age 19 in Sydney at the 2000 Olympic games, where he tied Gary Hall Jr. for first place in the 50 free. After 2003, Ervin gave up swimming, but then years later made his comeback in 2012 when he made the London team. Now, 16 years later in 2016 at age 35, Ervin won gold again in the same event.

10. Ryan Murphy broke the world record in the 100 backstroke leading off the 4x100 medley relay.

Murphy already had an incredible first Olympics, capturing gold in both the 100 and 200 back and continuing the long legacy of Americans dominating the backstrokes. However, leading off the relay on the last night, Murphy casually destroyed the rest of the backstrokers swimming and broke Aaron Peirsol's 100 back world record while doing so.

I may be a bit of a swimming nerd, but I don't think anyone could deny that swimming in Rio was action-packed, extremely emotional and probably the best part of the entire 2016 Olympic games.