Phelps vs. Lochte } Phelps Teaching Lesson in Swimming , Do it Like Me and U Win
Very soon, Michael Phelps will become the most accomplished Olympian of all-time. He will almost certainly win at least four medals and move above every gymnast and runner and swimmer and anyone else who ever competed on the world’s biggest stage.
The endorsement checks will keep coming in, and after that Phelps will live the life of a 27-year-old retired millionaire. Sweet gig, if you can get it.
Right now, though, he is none of those things. Right now, he’s just another great swimmer in a meet full of great swimmers, and this is the first wowza moment of these Summer Olympics.
“Just a crappy race,” is how he described his no-medal-for-you fourth-place swim in the 400 meter individual medley.
Ryan Lochte won the race in 4 minutes, 5.18 seconds, while Phelps finished in 4:09.28.
Phelps’ coach went a step more, calling Phelps’ performance “horrible.”
Phelps shot the equivalent of an air-ball in what was supposed to be the first major showdown between the world’s two best swimmers, who happened to not only be Americans, but suitemates and spades partners.
Instead, Phelps took a beatdown. Instead, Phelps gave us a lesson in the power of focus and motivation, and that’s not meant as a criticism — it’s meant as understanding.
Don’t let anyone tell you this is about Phelps growing old. He’s a year younger than Lochte, and six months older than silver medalist Thiago Pereira.
This is about one of the most dominant athletes in Olympics history losing his edge, even for just one day, even if he wins six more medals starting in the 400 frestyle relay today. The aura is gone, killed by human nature.
Phelps owned this event, or at least he used to, setting the world record back in 2004 and then setting a record with another gold-medal swim in 2008. Phelps openly talked of retiring from the event after both previous golds, and maybe that’s what should’ve happened.
The 400 IM is a difficult mix, one that rewards obsessive training more than once-in-a-generation talent. Phelps once had both, which made him a historical force of nature. He won gold in a ridiculous 14 consecutive Olympic races, including eight world records. The last time he didn’t medal in an Olympic race, he was 15 years old and couldn’t legally drive.
Phelps was more than great. He was the kind of freak who affects the minds of the merely great. Like Mike Tyson before Buster Douglas, Michael Jordan before the Wizards, Tiger Woods before his wife grabbed a golf club.
That all changed on Saturday. Lochte doesn’t have Phelps’ talent, but for the last four years he had Phelps’ drive.
“I’ve said this before,” Lochte says. “This is my year, because I’ve put in the work.”
Lochte is all class in victory. If this is his ascension to the top of the swimming world, he’s not going out of his way to step on Phelps. Over and over, Lochte called Phelps his friend, and said his friend gave “110 percent.”
But there’s another message in there, too. A message that’s impossible not to hear if you know the story.
Lochte spent his early 20s with inconsistent focus, repeatedly getting hurt doing things that had nothing to do with becoming the world’s best swimmer. He fractured his foot skateboarding, bruised a knee in a scooter crash, sprained his ankle playing with his dog, hurt a knee breakdancing, and fractured a shoulder falling out of a tree (he was playing hide-and-seek).
That was back in the days when Phelps was training like the war on terrorism depended on it. At least 80,000 meters (nearly 50 miles) per week during peak training, twice-a-day sessions plus weightlifting.
Gifted with a disproportionately long torso and arms, as well as abnormally big feet and hands, Phelps was already working with something like the perfect chassis on which to build the world’s fastest swimming machine. Fanatical training just pushed him to a new level.
Phelps became a global icon four years ago in Beijing. Then, he admittedly lost his way. Maybe you remember the picture of him and that bong. Phelps felt tired. Bored. Thought about quitting, more than once.
This is a common reaction to reaching the top. Tyson got lazy. Jordan played minor-league baseball. Tiger played at Perkins.
Who can say how they’d act with a lifetime of financial security and nothing left to prove?
Phelps came back to swimming, of course, but he lost training time. Not enough that he won’t win medals this week — he’s still favored in both butterfly events, should win golds in the relays.
But if a full training schedule wasn’t beneficial, Phelps wouldn’t have done it in the lead-up to Beijing.
Meanwhile, Lochte trained like Phelps — the old Phelps. Cleaned up his diet. Toughened his training. No more moonlighting as a stuntman.
The difference in the two men showed up long before yesterday. Lochte won the two 400 IM world championships since Beijing, for instance. Over and over again, Lochte has told people this would be his year, and he’s always credited a beefed-up training program and focus.
That’s the same kind of focus that gave Phelps the better part of a decade as the king of the swimming world. When Phelps lost that focus, he also lost that title. This is human nature. This is the arc of many legendary athletes.
Phelps dived into the pool on Saturday as one of the greatest swimmers of all-time and climbed out as merely one of the greatest swimmers of this time.
If that’s a disappointment, we should all be so disappointed.
To reach Sam Mellinger, call 816-234-4365, send e-mail to smellinger@kcstar.com or follow twitter.com/mellinger. For previous columns, go to KansasCity.com.
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