His medal haul has now risen to 26, with the 100 butterfly – which he was won three straight Olympics – to come tonight. “I am exhausted. Some of my friends have sent some inspirational text messages that have helped”, Phelps said.
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Lochte turned 32 last week and is non-committal about whether Rio is his last Olympics.
On the day after Phelps dwarfed Lochte in the Men’s 200m IM to win another gold medal, Lochte was interviewed on the Dan Patrick Show. “We’re lucky to have you calling the swimming!”. But we heard from all in Canada how unbelievable you are. Friedman exclaimed. “Ryan Lochte is going to beat Michael Phelps in this event in the games, and Phelps might not even make the podium!”
Lochte had only beaten Phelps head-to-head in an Olympics race once: The 400-meter individual medley four years ago at the London Olympics. At another time he would have far more championship hardware.
Racing in adjacent lanes in the second semi-final, Phelps clocked one minute, 55.78 seconds and Lochte 1:56.28, a turnaround from the morning heats where Lochte was first and Phelps third.
Rie Kaneto won Japan’s seventh gold medal at Rio 2016 as GB’s Chloe Tutton narrowly finished outside the medals in the women’s 200m breaststroke.
The two are good friends who’ve pushed each other to be the best, but Lochte still can’t help wondering what his career would be like if there were no Phelps in the picture.
The first of those is Thursday night, and in many ways it is the most interesting. The match is supposed to take place today, August, 11, 2016. After one of the swimming competitions, he said, “That was probably one of my most challenging doubles”. “Doing a double like that is a lot harder than it once was”.
A powerful front crawl to return left Phelps’ opponents swallowing his dust as the American claimed his fourth gold of the Olympics, and his 22nd overall.
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“Are you glad that Michael’s been around in your era?”
