Michael Phelps finished with a winning time of 4 minutes, 13.33 seconds. The two-time defending Olympic champion advanced to Saturday’s final, where he will start 8th.
The safe prediction all along was that Ryan Lochte would not only win the 400-meter individual medley Saturday, but dominate, and he did. He won by more than three seconds, claiming not just the first gold medal in swimming but the first gold for the entire U.S. team at these London 2012 Games.
Michael Phelps: 16 Medals And Counting
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But that showdown with Michael Phelps?
It takes two for a showdown, and Phelps — this sentence seems almost improbable — not only didn’t bring his “A” game, he didn’t even win a medal. He finished fourth.
Brazil’s Thiago Pereira took second, Japanese teen-ager Kosuke Hagino third.
Lochte, at a news conference late Saturday night, Phelps’ air of invincibility suddenly gone, noted the obvious: “A lot of people say Michael is inhuman. He’s just like all of us …”
The result marked the first time Phelps had been in an Olympic final since 2000, when he was 15, and not won a medal.
Phelps has, over his career, won 16 medals, 14 gold. Coming to London, he needed two more to tie, three more to become the winningest Olympic athlete from any nation. After Saturday night — he still needs two more to tie, three more to go ahead.
Phelps came to London as the 2004 and 2008 400 IM champion. Lochte was the 2009 and 2011 world champion. If Phelps won, he would have been the first man in history to three-peat an Olympic event. Instead, when Saturday night’s race was over, he looked at the clock and seemed to barely pull himself out of the pool.
Phelps seemingly struggled Saturday morning to even make the final. He made the cut by only seven-hundredths of a second, earning a spot in Lane 8, the slowest lane in the pool.
The first leg of the 400 IM is the butterfly. Phelps is the king of the fly. But after 100 meters Saturday night, Phelps was not first but second, behind Lochte. At 200 meters, he was third; at 300, fourth. And he couldn’t rally.
Phelps has never been one for excuses, and there were none. He said, “I was lucky to get in,” meaning to the final, adding, “The lane draw had nothing to do with me coming in fourth place. It was just a crappy race.”
Phelps still has the 200 fly, the 200 IM and the 100 fly, as well as three relays. If his performance at the U.S. Trials in Omaha was any indication, these shorter races will be more to his liking.
“It’s not the start I would have liked,” he said, “but I’ve just got to move on.”
Backstage, in the swimmers’ massage area, Phelps sought Lochte out after the race and offered congratulations. “He definitely was proud of me,” Lochte said. “I know at the same time he was kind of upset. It probably is more motivation for him for the rest of the meet.”
Lochte, meanwhile, has been the best swimmer in the world for the past two years; the only thing left for him to do was prove it on the Olympic stage.
His winning time, 4:05.18, is the second-fastest ever, behind only the 4:03.84 that Phelps swam in Beijing in 2008.
Lochte’s prior personal best had been 4.06.08. If you’re going to swim your best, an Olympic final is the time to do it. Eating all those chicken breasts and broccoli and throwing all those monster truck tires around really was excellent preparation.
One more set of numbers:
Lochte’s 3.68-second margin of victory over Pereira is the largest in the event’s history at the Olympics. In 2004, Phelps had won by 3.55 seconds over Erik Vendt.
Lochte has these swims remaining: 200 free, 200 back, 200 IM, 800 free relay and, perhaps, the 400 free relay. Even the medley relay can’t be ruled out.
“I have said this before: this is my year. I know it and I feel it,” Lochte said. “I have trained my butt off for four years. I feel it inside my gut. This is my year. There is no better way to start this Olympics than to get a gold.”
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