You’re told Phelps will win one of his golds (100 fly, 200 fly, 200 IM, 400 IM) four-straight times and have to guess which event it’ll be. Once again, that “lost” 2012 Olympics (which still turned out pretty good) felled him. France’s Florent Manaudou was the surprise victor in 2012 – slicing more than half a second off his personal best to win from lane seven and after some post-London doldrums he’s again in top form.
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With the Rio crowd’s excitement mounting, the three turned nearly together after the backstroke, with Lochte just 0.01 seconds ahead.
Adrian, the world silver medallist, qualified second fastest behind Ukraine’s Andrii Govorov, the pace-setter with a 21.49.
Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu is poised for a charge at a record-equalling fourth individual gold in Rio in the women’s 200m backstroke final after topping the heats in a new personal best time.
Phelps has won every Olympic 200 IM since 2004. While the US had easily routed Senegal and Spain in its first two games, winning by an average of 52.5 points, they had a harder time against the hot-shooting Balkan nation. While this isn’t the eight-events-for-eight-golds insanity of Beijing, it is an inarguably aggressive program.
“He is just proving he is easily the greatest swimmer of all time and I am excited to see what he does next because once that guy gets hot you can’t really stop him”, said relay teammate Conor Dwyer.
The Americans trailed Australia after three legs, but Ledecky chased down Tamsin Cook for the win. But at USA trials, he missed making the team in the 400 IM, in which he won gold in London, as well as the 200 free. In an interview with NBC, Lochte gave a brutally honest quote about where he stands in the pecking order and what his career would be like if it weren’t for Phelps. Ledecky hardly kicked for much of the race, indicating she did not plan to chase her own world record in the event until the final. Neither is likely to approach that number Thursday night. Keep an eye on Japan’s Kosuke Hagino, who also has a shot to make the podium.
The teenager from suburban Washington has one more race to go, and it might be the biggest lock of all.
After five hours of sleep, Phelps said he actually felt rather fresh for the afternoon preliminaries.
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Phelps looked back and said, “We have a lot of momentum right now”.
