That’s what Michael Phelps did to Chad Le Clos on Monday night while they were waiting for the start of their 200 butterfly race.
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In Monday night’s semifinals, Phelps and le Clos did head-to-head battle in the same heat, racing in lanes 3 and 5.
In getting to the final, Phelps becomes the first swimmer in Olympic history to reach the final five times in one event.
Phelps was so incredibly focused, he seemingly embraced The Dark Side while his South African rival, Chad le Clos, shadow boxed in front of him.
China’s Xu Jiayu took the silver with a time of 52.31, thus ending a streak of two straight Olympic finals in the event in which the United States finished 1-2.
Phelps now separates himself from two other athletes, Australian Leisel Jones and Japanese legendKosuke Kitajima, who qualified for the Olympic final in the same event at four straight Games.
Le Clos has been mouthy ever since he touched the wall first in that London race.
“From my side there is no real tension, I have no emotion when I am racing, I’ve trained hard for this and of course there is a huge rivalry between Michael and myself”, Le Clos said. In the video, Phelps looks like he’s turning full-on into another being.
South Africa coach Graham Hill has praised the courage of le Clos, predicting his family heartache will spur him on in Rio.
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In that time, Le Clos usurped Phelps’s 100m and 200m butterfly titles at the 2013 world championships, and the following year he was without peer in the ‘fly at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Harsh words have been directed as athletes such as Yulina Efimova and Sun Yang, who previously served doping suspensions. “I race to win and I want to beat Michael and he wants to beat me”. It’s sad that today in sports in general, not just only swimming, there are people who are testing positive who are allowed back in the sport – and multiple times.
