So apparently, Michael Phelps threw a little shade at Chad le Clos ahead of the Men’s 200m butterfly on Monday.
Advertisement
A hooded Phelps retaliated with a Darth Maul-like stare and a snarl, and went out and ensured he touched before Le Clos, who had won the 200m freestyle silver less than an hour earlier.
Le Clos was philosophical about the shadow boxing (watch video below), although when asked about it he replied coyly with his boyish smile: “Oh!” Did they get that? “Nobody expected me to win four years ago so I’d be an idiot to say it’s just and Michael or just me and Laszlo (Cseh)”, Le Clos said.
“I just do what I do”. Dude was angry, he was fuming – he wanted blood in a way we haven’t seen before.
The call room, where swimmers wait before being summoned onto the pool deck for competition, is also known as the psyche room.
Clocking the fastest lap of the race, (26.37), in the third lap, Yang moved through to take the lead, a 0.55 second advantage, and snatch the gold medal away from the South African.
“From my side there is no real tension”. I have no emotion when I race.
Now, four years later, Le Clos is not the starry-eyed kid he once was.
“I have a lot of respect for him”.
Winning the relay had become a matter of national pride for the Americans after they were beaten in London in 2012, and failed to make the final at last year’s world championships in Russian Federation.
Nothing was left to chance, with the team even calling in four-time National Basketball Association champion Tony Parker to talk with the swimmers during one of their final training camps. “So he can keep quiet now”.
With his infant son Boomer watching from the stands, cradled in the arms of his mother, Phelps’s fiancee Nicole Johnson, the greatest Olympian of all time began to weep after two of his teammates, Ryan Held and Caeleb Dressel, started to bawl.
Advertisement
Let’s take a closer look at the “death stare”.
