RIO DE JANEIRO - No means no. No amount of cajoling, arm-twisting and pleading by his team mates and swimming fans around the world will make Michael Phelps change his mind about retiring after the Rio Olympics.

The great American swimmer made that abundantly clear on Friday after winning the 27th Olympic medal of his career, a three-way dead-heat silver in the men's 100 metres butterfly.

"No," he said as the question was still leaving the journalist's lips, a succession of further 'no's following in close succession.

"Done. (South African co-silver medallist) Chad (Le Clos) asked me in the award area and the Dwyers were chanting 'four more years'.

"They did the same thing in London. The 800 free relay guys said four more years ... No. I am NOT going four more years. And I'm standing by that.

"I've been able to do everything I've ever put my mind to in this sport. And 24 years in the sport. I'm happy with how things finished."

Phelps said in 2012 he was retiring but he came back for one last hurrah after feeling he wanted to bow out on his own terms.

That meant winning back the men's 200m butterfly title that Le Clos took from him four years ago, and he declared 'mission achieved' on that last Wednesday.

He has won four golds and a silver in Rio so far, taking his tally to 22 golds, and is not finished completely yet even if his loss to Singapore's Joseph Schooling in the 100m butterfly final on Friday (Saturday morning, Aug 13, Singapore time) was his last individual race. The 4x100 medley relay on Saturday will be his final farewell.

After that, Phelps will hang up his cap -- not the one he ripped in half before the 4x200 freestyle relay -- and spend more time with his loved ones.

"Being able to close the door on this sport how I want to, that's why I'm happy now," he said.

"I'm ready to retire. I'm happy about it. I'm in a better state of mind this time than I was four years ago. And yeah. I'm ready to spend some time with (baby son) Boomer and (fiancee) Nicole."

With team mate Anthony Ervin winning the 50 freestyle gold on Friday at the age of 35, 16 years after he first won it, there will always be those who wonder if the 31-year-old Phelps might do another tumble turn and turn up in Tokyo in 2020.

"I will be in Tokyo," he said. "But I won't be competing in Tokyo.

"No more. This is it. I said it a bunch before. But I'm not doing it. No more. I swore in London I wasn't coming back and this is final. Were the papers here, I'd sign them tomorrow."

Appearing before journalists after dead-heating for the silver medal in the 100 metres butterfly on Friday, the last individual race of his long career, the most successful Olympian of all time was peppered with questions as gold medallist Joseph Schooling of Singapore sat alongside him.

Gracefully, the American tried to ease out of the spotlight.

"Joe should be getting most of the questions," he eventually told reporters, laughing. "This kid just won a gold medal, guys. Let's ask him some more questions."

When a journalist obliged by asking Schooling how it felt to become "the go-to butterflier in the world right now", the 21-year-old hesitated and glanced to his left at Phelps.

"That's for you bro, don't look at me," Phelps told him.

It was a surreal moment for Schooling, who had just beaten three of the greatest butterfly exponents in Phelps, South Africa's Chad Le Clos and Hungary's Laszlo Cseh, all of whom tied for second.

"That sounds like a lot of pressure. I don't think I'm anywhere close to these three guys next to me," he said modestly in reply to the question.

"Today just happened to be a good day for me.

"I think Chad, Michael and Laszlo should still be the face for butterfly. This is like my first gold medal it's not like I've won 22 or 23."

Phelps shot back: "It's a pretty good one to win, though."

Schooling paid tribute to Phelps as the idol whose inspiration set him on course to become Singapore's first gold medallist in any sport.

"If it wasn't for Michael, I don't think I could have gotten to this point. I wanted to be like him as a kid.

"I wanted to win. And I think a lot of this is because of Michael, he's the reason I wanted to be a better swimmer."

After the medal ceremony, the pair were deep in conversation on the pool deck, and Schooling said he told Phelps the feeling was 'out of this world'.

"He smiled and said, like, I know," Schooling said.

"He's been through it all, and just being beside him, walking beside him and celebrating, I'll really cherish that for the rest of my life."  REUTERS