Michael Phelps Quotes:
“I’m really interested to see what the replay looks like because going into the wall I felt like I had set myself up for a good one just based one where I was in comparison to Nathan and I thought I had the right distance to go into the wall and when I literally took a couple kicks and I barely passed the flags I knew there was very little chance that I was going to run anybody down. So it’s kind of frustrating but you know I never really know where we are in that race right now. I felt really good after the morning swim besides the first 50 and I felt good in the warm-up pool getting ready for tonight, it just kind of stinks that I missed the first wall but it’s a part of racing and there is going to be another chance to swim that race in a couple weeks. I’m just trying to get a spot on the team and go from there. I am ready to have a day off and get ready for the 100 fly.”
Ryan Lochte Quotes:
“I had a great start and I just built off that. I changed my freestyle about three times this year. I am still trying to learn the right stroke for me, so I am still in my learning stages. The stuff I have been doing in the water with (coach) David (Marsh) has been great. He is a great coach, and I am glad that I pulled that one out.”
“Right now, I’m tired. I didn’t know if I would make the Pan Pac team. Like I have said before, this year has been the biggest roller coaster of my life. I couldn’t get anything right all year with surgery and injuries. I am glad I pulled this out, but this is just the start.”
On Michael Phelps: “He said he missed the turn. I saw it, because when I flipped I looked under water and saw him. Things happen. He is going to fix it and make sure it never happens again.”
“Usually my first event is usually my worst event, so I am glad I did well in that one so I can get the meet started.”
Tsk, tsk, lazy reporting! How could you miss Lochte’s best quote of the night? “…I have a pain for tolerance.”
😉
That was a classic Lochte quote! At first I thought he was going to say “I’ve always had a pain ‘in my knee’, but when he said “for tolerance” I almost peed myself!
I think that MP is still dangerous but he is definitely not the MP of old. He trains differently than before, AND, he is older. Yes yes, I know he is still young but maybe his body is not able to adapt to a more sprint type of training.
MP returning to competition is an experiment. As with every experiment, there are successes and failures. Let’s see how the rest of the meet and his career through 2016 unfold before we will know if the experiment was a success.
Less than a year into focusing on 100s at the elite international level, I’d say he hasn’t had enough time to consider this “not adapting to training”..
CE, he has always done speed work for his 100 fly but I agree that he hasn’t focused solely on 100s until now. I still maintain that his body may not be the same as it once was. Regardless, I hope that he can pull consistent 48 lows out of his hat between now and 2016 Olympic Trials.
MP returning is as much an experiment as Dara Torres returning for few times.
In other words: not so much an experiment as meticulously-planned.
“Usually my first event is usually my worst event….”
In 2012, his first event in London was his best.
Lochte as expected will be very strong this week. He’s fresh. He has a great training environment at SwimMAC. He should win the 200 IM and perhaps the 200 back as well.
Michael, don’t worry. It was a bad race but these things can happen. Focus now on your best event, the 100 fly, because you will have much competition with Lochte and especially Shields who was amazing in the 200 fly.
TJ, if he qualifies in any of his three remaining races, he is able to swim what he wants at pan pacs. Ex. Lochte could scratch rest of races and still swim them all at pan pacs.
Lochte was able to look over from lane 8 to lane 3 in the middle of a fast flip turn, with four people flipping between them, and see Phelps miss the wall through all the white water, bubbles, and human beings?
Lochte is the master of the mind game. Praising Phelps after a bad mistake and saying that “He is going to fix it and make sure it never happens again” is just classic. He is almost coaching “the master”!
That’s the thing though, Phelps is almost certainly going to mess up his turns again. It’s kind of his thing now and it’s maddening.
Agreed. Unfortunately making a comeback at 29 is tough. A lot harder than all of his fans think it is. I think that he is doing quite well, only because I had very realistic expectations about what he could achieve.
I’m sorry, but I must disagree; there is no way Lochte is a master at mind games! Although I think he’s smarter than he appears in interviews, I think his strength is simply his ability to race! If he’s done the work to attain the fitness level necessary, Ryan has that ability to raise his level to what is necessary to win when he is challenged. Phelps does too. I guess most swimming champions do to a certain extent, but Lochte and Phelps were given extra portions of this ability by our good Lord! 🙂
Ryan did an excellent job tonight. I know Michael will pull it together. He always does 🙂
What does he mean by him getting another chance at that race in a couple of weeks? I thought he didn’t make the team in the 100 free?
Relay spot in the morning maybe?
Once you make the team you can swim any events you want in prelims.
That’s what I asked a few days ago.
So Nathan Adrian, Katie Ledecky and the others can go on vacation now to prepare the Pan Pacs! 😆