Produced by Coleman Hodges.
Reported by Braden Keith.
Ryan Lochte one-upped Phelps tonight by swimming 1:57.20 to win the A-Final and take his first event title of the meet. That moves Lochte to 3rd in the world rankings in 2015.
Lochte went hard on the first 100 meters of this race, splitting 54.3 at the midway mark. What was more impressive, though, was his 33.77 breaststroke split, which was easily able to fend off Josh Prenot, whose best stroke is breaststroke, and who wound up as the runner-up in the race.
Lochte paid a little on his freestyle leg, but that’s typically how he swims the 200 IM anyway, and he had more-than-enough room for victory.
Prenot, who has one season of eligibility left at Cal touched in 1:58.98 for the silver, which is a tenth faster than he’s been in his career.
Brazilian Thiago Pereira faded at the end of his race to Prenot and eventually took 3rd in 1:59.51. Conor Dwyer, who’s been making big drops in finals sessions all weekend, did so again in 1:59.80 – more than two seconds faster than he was in prelims.
Andrew Seliskar rounded out the group under two minutes with a 5th-place time of 1:59.93.
I love Ryan – he’s so relaxed. He’s become a much better speaker lately too. I wonder if he had some coaching in that department. An awesome swimmer and fantastic role model!
He is a real warrior in the pool ! that’s what i love in Ryan – he won’t shy away because of a loaded schedule . Well done with that 1.57 – 3d best time of the year so far .
OUCH! If it’s too much drama don’t watch it! Maybe if your daughter is climbing out of the water smiling she can learn from the interview…probably needs to push it a bit harder…it doesn’t take any drama to stay in your comfort zone.
“I was crying in my goggles last 50” – wow! Our 12 year old girl, who I thought thus far is the biggest drama queen there is, swam 200 IM last Saturday and came out smiling. Why so much drama about how difficult is for Lockte and Phelps to swim IM now. Perhaps they are too old for that? Still, way much more drama than I can take.
Um, can we please say tongue-in-cheek humor? It wasn’t lost on me. I enjoyed Ryan’s joke with a wink.
Hey Daddy , relax , don’t compare the uncomparable ! Ryan is a great swimmer – without him , Team Usa would have cried much more in the past years in terms of results . Enjoy pleaseeee
At your daughter’s age, she should be smiling after races. For an elite level swimmer like Ryan, he needs to push himself to the point of excruciating pain sometimes. He wasn’t crying out of disappointment, his eyes were welling up due to physical pain. It has nothing to do with drama.
Have you ever had a post with more likes than dislikes..?