Ryan Lochte believes he will need “a flawless performance” to beat Michael Phelps in Thursday’s 200-meter individual medley at Rio 2016.
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“Finally, he’s going to do it. Ryan Lochte is going to beat Michael Phelps in this event”, he exclaimed as the swimmers neared the finish line.
In the same event at London in 2012, Phelps took the gold medal and Lochte won silver.
There were no medals on the line in this heat; the two will square off again during the final race on Thursday night.
The crowd at the Olympic Aquatics Centre revelled in one of the last few chances to see Phelps swim, and the American egged them on, straddling the lane ropes with his arms raised in the air then planting a big made-for-TV sloppy kiss on his baby son, Boomer.
Lochte has owned the 200 IM world record for seven years, but Phelps usually comes out on top against him.
Lochte came in fifth, with a time of 1:57.47.
It was quite a night for the powerful American team, which picked up two more golds. “We’ve been racing for 12 years, and with one more battle, it will be fun”.
No one has run away from the competition in the 200 breaststroke, but Australia’s Taylor McKeown has etched herself as the woman to beat in the final. This is the fourth straight Olympics that Lochte has competed in the 200 IM, and he has yet to win Gold – he has two Silvers and one Bronze.
“You know the history him and I have had with one another is something special and something I’ve never had in another competitor of mine”, Phelps said. “Ryan and I have probably grown closer as friends this year than we have in the past, so we’ll have one more time to hop in the pool and duke it out”. He’s the toughest competitor and racer I’ve ever had to go up against.
Kaneto finished in 2 minutes 20.30 seconds, beating Russia’s Yulia Efimova by 1.67 seconds. During the medal ceremony that followed, Phelps showed more of the emotion that we saw from him after he won his 25th medal, two days ago.
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Great Britain’s Chloe Tutton (2:22.71) and Canada’s Kiera Smith (2:22.87) filled out the final, with Turkey’s Viktoria Gunes missing in ninth at 2:23.49.
