He is the goldfish who metaphorically turns into gold every time his toe goes in water. Even though Michael Phelps has had a rough time for some while now, that jinx was jinxed as he received a gold medal in the World Swimming Championships that took place in Shanghai.
Phelps whirls his win at the World Championships
He won the gold in the 200m butterfly and silver again for the 200 meters freestyle that took place earlier. His timing for the freestyle was 53.34 seconds. He beat Japan’s Takeshi Matsuda, who was leading the race but was defeated in the last 50m of the race.
Earlier, Michael Phelps received silver as Ryan Lochte grabbed the gold for the 200m freestyle. Phelps was leading during the start of the race however Lochte glided through the last few meters with a winning time of 44:44 seconds where Phelps had a time of 1:44:79.
Winning two consecutive medals has wiped out the blip that Phelps found himself in before this tournament. He has already won 16 gold medals for the Olympics and this winning spree has given him the much needed motivation and support that he needs to get back into the earlier shape. He blames himself for not performing as well as he should have and says that he lacked behind with his training but will swim any distance to get back to shape. He also said that he knows how it feels like to lose a race and was determined to not go back the same lane again.
From 2008 when the Beijing Olympics took place, and especially this last year had not fared well for the American as he faced a number of defeats. Winning gold has sprung him into working hard in getting to the same position as he once held as a champion.
“Having a number of defeats this year is extremely frustrating for me and I didn’t like the feeling”, he said to the media. He also agrees that though the past few days have been great, he will need to work harder for the upcoming Olympics.
With just a year left for the London Olympics, both Phelps and Lochte find the achievements to be a great boost as well as a great training. Both of the swimmers have been close rivals for several years now and defeating the other comes as great pride.
As the first splash was taken into the newly opened Aquatics center in London Yesterday, looks like the waves brought back luck to the Phelps.
Tags: London Olympics, Michael Phelps, Shanghai, Swimming, World Swimming Championships
