Not even 24 hours have passed since American swimming icon Michael Phelps threw down the world’s fastest 200m butterfly time in San Antonio that the worldwide trash talking has begun.
Phelps crushed at time of 1:52.94 to take the 200m butterfly title at U.S. Nationals, silencing any skeptics who thought the man was past his prime. But, rivals took to the mic to express their thoughts on the 18-time Olympic gold medalist’s performance.
Said Hungarian Laszlo Cseh when asked about Phelps’ #1 time in the world, “”It doesn’t [matter] because I won the world champs.”
South African Chad Le Clos’ also had some choice words after his own gold medal-winning 100m butterfly performance today at the World Championships. When asked about Phelps’ post-race, Le Clos offered up, “Michael Phelps has been talking about how slow the butterfly events have been recently. I just did a time he hasn’t done in four years. So he can keep quiet now.” Le Clos may be particularly sensitive Phelps’ in-pool response, seeing how the American’s 1:52.96 was .02 better that the time Le Clos registered to beat Phelps in the event at the 2012 London Olympic Games.
For his part, Le Clos raced to a new South African and African 100m fly record of 50.56 in Kazan today and actually logged the second-fastest textile swim ever in the event. In comparison, Phelps’ best 100m fly textile time is 50.65 from 2010.
We’ve seen in the past how competitors’ comments only up Phelps’ game and fuel his already evident “I absolutely hate to lose” racing spark.
After last night’s special swim, Phelps said, “It just shows you that anything is possible if you do want something bad enough. I went through a lot. And to be able to train like I did to get ready for this — I mean, I can do whatever I put my mind to. And this next year is going to be pretty damn fun.”
Phelps will contest the 100m butterfly race tonight in San Antonio, where he goes into the final as the second seed (52.12).
I hear many people trash talking Chad, but they should stop for a moment and consider this simple fact, Chad is the only swimmer in the world to beat, arguably, the greatest swimmer we have seen, at his favorite event, on the biggest stage of all! That in itself demands that he should be respected as a serious contender in Rio, after all how many swimmers are there alive who could lay claim to that?
Wow
Le Clos is a punk, as said above–athletes who refer to themselves in the third person have a little ego problem….and Le Clos apparently is too dumb to know Vince Lombardi’s immortal maxim: ‘sweet talk your opponents to death.’ Trash talk only gets the testosterone flowing even faster and Phelps was already motivated again, LOL…….
The boy Joseph Schooling is only 20 years old and is one for the future. Maybe he can surprise Le Clos and Phelps in Rio. If not, he can be the champ in Tokyo.
I will dislike Le Clos, simply based the fact that he referred to himself in the third person. “Look, I don’t want to say it’s easy to swim by yourself, but it’s a lot harder when you know Chad le Clos is coming back at you the last 50 meters,” Le Clos said.
Far cry from calling phelps his hero during the London post interview
“It’s been a dream of mine ever since I was a little boy,” le Clos said. “I just wanted to race Phelps in the final and I’ve beaten him. I can’t believe it. Phelps is my hero and I love the guy. To beat him, I can’t believe it. You don’t understand what this means to me. This is the greatest moment of my life.”
Well, Phelps did his response in the pool.
The more entertaining story is that Schooling beat Conger.
Phelps with a 50.45!! Chad, please be quiet now..