When victories become frequent, the next single loss comes as the biggest disappointment to an athlete. Michael Phelps suffered his first Olympic loss in over eight years.
Ryan Lochte wins over Michael Phelps
It was already well known prior to the Olympics event that the competition would be fierce between Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps and that was exactly the case. Lochte poured over Phelps on the first day of the Olympic 2012 action. The men’s 400 meters individual medley finally has Lochte taking the title to his name and showing to the world just why he was the deadly competition to be watched out for.
Phelps had won four gold medals in the Beijing Olympics and now four years later, the waves have changed their course. This time, Phelps finished the race in fourth position and was not one of the receivers of an Olympic medal. His first Olympic experience was when he was just 15 years old and he always managed to come in the top three positions but sadly that record of Phelps has now been broken.
Of course the frustration was shown and told by Phelps. He agreed that the others were more prepared than he was. Even though he felt good towards the starting of the race, he started to loose command towards the last 200 meters and then came a point where he knew he was not going to make it to the top three.
“They were better prepared. It was a frustrating race for me. I was lucky to get into the final.”
Lochte has been performing consistently since last year. He won a gold in the Shanghai world title last year with a time of 4:05.18. The world knew that it would be tough fight all the way to and in the Olympics. And it certainly was. He has three gold medals to his name so far from the past Olympics. Lochte still has three more individual races to compete in along with a relay.
He does recognize that the Chinese competitors are fierce and it will be a brutal competition to fight and win but his confidence is all within him.
“I’m ready to rock this Olympics,” he said.
With a win right at the opening day and a promising future events line up ahead, the American can already see more gold.
Tags: London Olympics 2012, Michael Phelps, Olympics, Ryan Lochte, Swimming
