Le Clos is back to defend his title at the Maria Lenk Aquatics Centre, but he only placed third in his semi-final behind Phelps on Monday. While South Africa’s Chad Le Clos got ready for the bout with shadowboxing (presumably with the Rocky theme song playing in his head), Phelps sat cloaked in a hoodie with large headphones blasting on his ears and a death stare on his face. 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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Now, it’s time for the rematch.
American swimmer Ryan Held turned on the waterworks after winning gold together with Michael Phelps, Caeleb Dressel and Nathan Adrian in the 4x100m freestyle relay on Monday (NZ time), prompting a bout of swooning over him on social media.
Rio de Janeiro: Michael Phelps has set tongues wagging at the Rio Olympics by sporting mysterious deep-purple circles on his body, looking as if he has been attacked by a blood-thirsty vampire. Both move onto Tuesday’s final, which will be Phelps’ fifth.
Phelps isn’t as busy at the Rio Olympics as Katinka Hosszu of Hungary, nicknamed “The Iron Lady” for her ambitious event schedule. But while Phelps was staring, le Clos seemed to be making light of his serious glare.
After Monday’s swim, it was likely le Clos doing the scowling.
But le Clos started it by, perhaps deliberately, shadow boxing in front of Phelps in the pre-race room.
“I wanted the first 200 to hurt very little and I felt like I could build into it and really explode that last 50”, she added after leading the race throughout. His compatriot Katie Ledecky is also on the hunt for more glory, as she goes off as the favourite in the 200-metre freestyle final.
Murray faces off against Juan Monaco in round two on Tuesday, with Rafael Nadal is also in action against Andreas Seppi.
Ledecky was second in the semifinals behind Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom, gold medalist in the 100 butterfly.
She topped the 200 individual medley heats with a time of 2:07.45.
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“There are a lot of things I could say”.
