Le Clos knows he’ll be facing the most decorated athlete in Olympic history, a highly motivated rival still at the top of his game as he showed in leading the United States to a stirring victory in the 4×100 freestyle relay. Four years ago, le Clos pulled off one of the greatest Olympic upsets when he beat Phelps, who had the lead but glided too long on his finish.
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Yesterday, le Clos swam the freestyle of the men’s 200-meter and managed a comfortable place in the finals with a rank of five, while Phelps won gold with the US men at the 4×100 meter free relay.
Before the race, Phelps was caught grimacing at South African competitor Chad le Clos, who was dancing and shadow boxing in front of him before the race.
“Of course there’s a huge rivalry between Michael and myself”, Le Clos said.
Phelps ended up finishing second in the race, beating le Clos.
Today Le Clos will just want to look more threatening in the water in the opening round than countryman Cameron van der Burgh did in the heats of the 100m breaststroke on Saturday afternoon. “I’ll race my heart out”.
“I have a lot of respect for him”.
“I probably got to sleep at 3:00 am and was on an 11:00 am bus, so quick turnarounds”, Phelps said. Past year there were some spoken words when he was at his nationals and I was at world champs – a lot of it was misquoted.
Chad le Clos (left), Tamas Kenderesi (centre) and Michael Phelps (right) compete in the second semifinal of the Men’s 200m butterfly.
The next day Phelps responded with a faster time.
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But past year, veteran Hungarian Laszlo Cseh stunned Le Clos to take the 200m butterfly title.
