After the semifinal heat for the men’s 200m butterfly, Phelps discussed le Clos’ wild prep tactics saying: “Everyone has their own race strategy”.
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Michael Phelps’ determination to stay in the zone while his swimming rival, South Africa’s Chad le Clos, amped himself up before their face-off Monday in Rio resulted in a death stare face that has gone viral.
The two will compete again tonight in the 200-meter butterfly final.
When Phelps made a decision to return to the pool in 2014, he said the 200 butterfly originally wasn’t in his plans until he saw the times being posted around the world and realized he could possibly still be the best in the world despite a two-year layoff.
Le Clos famously snatched gold from Phelps in the same event at the 2012 Olympics.
“With athletes like Michael Phelps, for instance, they train and work out and lactic acid and other by-products builds up in their muscles and the cupping helps to bring more circulation to the area to help move out those by-products”, said Naomi Skoglund of Six Branches Acupuncture in Portland.
Phelps laughed off the comment, although he came with a pretty solid quote about it in the New York Times.
After the swim, Phelps told NBC that he was pretty much ignoring le Clos in the ready room.
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“Coming off the wall I thought my kickout was great”, Phelps said. Let the staredown commence.
