Since the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, Lochte and Phelps gave competed in the 200IM. “We bring the best out in each other”. And on Thursday night they will do so, side by side, for likely the last time.
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The second to last 50 was Phelps’ “worst stroke”, the breaststroke.
Ledecky seeks her fourth gold medal in Rio, which would tie her with Amy Van Dyken (1996) and Missy Franklin (2012) as the only American female athletes to win that many in a single Olympics.
But the 200 IM.
Rio de Janeiro, Aug 12 (IANS) It was a night of high drama at Rio’s Olympic Aquatics Stadium on Thursday with a new Michael Phelps record, a dead heat and Canada’s first gold medal of these Games. Lochte is Patrick Ewing to Phelps’ Michael Jordan. As it is, he’s respected and admired, but he’s not in the same stratosphere as Phelps.
Lochte set his world record of 1:54.00 at the 2011 world championships in Shanghai, when he beat Phelps by 16 hundredths. Bad timing. Yet he can take credit for pushing Phelps, who absolutely hates to lose. I guess you would say I’d be like the Michael Phelps of swimming if he wasn’t there.
“When we go up on the blocks, we’re always trying to win – that’s just the competitive instinct we have”, he added. All I know is I love racing against him.
“Hopefully I have the chance to do it again”.
Racing against USA teammate Ryan Lochte, Phelps posted a time of 1:54:66, pulling well away late and sealing his 22nd career gold medal and 26th overall.
After apparently getting the two United States lanes mixed up the commentators calling the race believed Lochte was storming to victory.
Japan’s Hiromasa Fujimori was fourth and Lochte fifth in the last individual race of his long career, with a flagging Pereira seventh.
“You can’t count out Thiago”, Phelps said. “This place is going to be loud tomorrow – I’m looking forward to it”.
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And both would pay for their early exertions as they dropped out of the medals completely, allowing Hagino to snatch what had seemed an unlikely silver.
