Michael Phelps of North Baltimore Aquatic Club rose to the challenge put forth by Chad Le Clos, after his gold-medal performance of 50.56 in the 100m butterfly at the 2015 World Championships in Kazan, and posted yet another World-leading time, winning the U.S. National title in 50.45. That beat Le Clos’ winning time by .11.
Phelps was relatively slow off the blocks, but he made up for it with an incredible wall at the 50 and perhaps the best second-half of his career.
r 0.81 │ 24.10 / 26.35 = 50.45
Le Clos’ splits in Kazan, by comparison, were:
r 0.64 │ 23.72 / 26.84 = 50.56
After his win, Le Clos threw down the gauntlet, saying amongst other things, “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.”
In the post-race interview, Phelps responded with:
“I saw the times. I saw the comments. There are a lot of things I could say but I won’t. I let what I do in the pool do all of my talking and that’s how I’ve always done things. From a standpoint of what anybody else says, that’s their own business. You can keep saying anything, I don’t mind it, but you won’t get a rise out of me.”
I kind of hope that Les Clos beats MP at the next big international meet.
Well I’m really excited for Rio.
As for me Phelps is the greatest swimmer all the time. His success inspires me continue swimming more and more.
I woke up still giddy about last nights swim. I can’t get over how insane 26.36 is on the second 50. If you take away the added time for an open turn, that would have been a decent second 50 for a 100 freestyle!
The scary thing about his second 50 is that he did it in 18 strokes. He almost always took 19 on the second 50 except for Rome where he also took 18 but the reduced drag from the body suit can account for that. So if he took it out a little bit faster its not like he would have killed himself coming home. When he split 24.1 I wasn’t very optimistic but that second… Read more »
maybe bert le close needs to pay more attention to his diet than MP
Hey now, he is just an excited dad. This isn’t a beauty pageant.
We know now that his fly goes very well.
Really excited to see where his 200 IM is too.
Because I continue to think that the 200 IM will be the “easiest” event for MP to win a 4th olympic gold medal in a row in the same event.
In fly events the races will be very close. There’s a lot of competition right now.
In the 200 IM only Lochte and Hagino can bother him.
I’ve not so much been impressed by Lochte in the world final and Hagino still has to prove he can swim 1.54 and be present in the big moments.
Is it normal that the only final USA swimming hasn’t posted on its youtube channel yet is the men’s 100 fly A-Final? 🙄
I think greedy NBC wants to “premiere” the race either during their final Kazan coverage or during their Nationals coverage next week.
I’m dying waiting to see it! I’ve looked everywhere!
Honestly, if Phelps went slow today, and didn’t beat Le Clos, who, relative to Phelps, has done very little in his swimming career? No one can justifiably trash Phelps until they surpass his success and achievements.