LONDON — Ryan Lochte strolled the deck of the Olympic Aquatics Centre wearing diamonds in his mouth and lime-green sneakers on the feet that powered him through the water faster than anyone else. Beaming, he chomped playfully on his gold medal while Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” blared throughout the massive arena. Michael Phelps? He was nowhere to be found. Not during the race. Not when it came time to hand out the medals.
On opening night at the pool, Phelps was routed by his American rival in the 400-meter individual medley, losing to Lochte by more than four seconds Saturday. That’s not all. Phelps, the winningest Olympian ever, didn’t win any medal, the first time that has happened in a race of this magnitude since he was a 15-year-old kid competing in just one event at the Sydney Games 12 years ago.
“It was horrible,” Phelps told Coach Bob Bowman when he climbed out of the pool.
“It was,” Bowman replied.
Lochte turned the much-anticipated duel with Phelps into a blowout, raising serious questions about whether the guy who has won 14 gold medals and 16 medals overall has anything left in the tank for his Olympic farewell.
Phelps is planning to retire as soon as he finishes the last of his seven races in London, but he looked ready to call it a career while struggling just to pull himself from the water when his first event was done. He was totally spent and thoroughly beaten, perhaps signaling a changing of the guard at the pool.
“This is my year,” said Lochte, who popped in his diamond-studded mouth jewelry for the victory ceremony. “I know it and I feel it, because I’ve put in hard work. I’ve trained my butt off for four years ... and there’s no better way to start this Olympics off than getting gold.”
For Phelps, the start of these Games couldn’t have been more out of character. He barely qualified for the evening final, a performance that hinted at trouble ahead.
Phelps then struggled to a fourth-place finish, blown out by Lochte and beaten by Brazil’s Thiago Pereira and Japan’s Kosuke Hagino.
“It was just a crappy race,” Phelps said. “I felt fine the first 200, then I don’t know. They just swam a better race than me, a smarter race than me, and were better prepared than me. That’s why they’re on the medal stand.”
Lochte took the gold with a time of 4 minutes, 5.18 seconds. Pereira (4:08.86) and Hagino (4:08.94) were well back but ahead of Phelps, who touched
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in 4:09.28 — nearly 5/2 seconds off his world record from the Beijing Olympics and not nearly as fast as he went during the U.S. trials last month.
Since finishing fifth in his lone event at Sydney, the 200 butterfly, Phelps was 16 of 16 when it came to winning medals at the Olympics — 14 golds and two bronzes. That run is over.
Phelps was trying to become the first male swimmer to win the same individual event at three consecutive Olympics. He’ll have three more chances at a threepeat before he’s done in London, having also won the 200 individual medley, plus the 100 and 200 butterfly, at Athens, Greece and Beijing.
Phelps fell behind right from the start in the butterfly, his best stroke. From there, it was all Lochte. He stretched his margin in the backstroke and breaststroke, then cruised to the gold in the freestyle, a good three body lengths ahead of the rest of the field.
China also had a big night, claiming two gold medals.
Ye Shiwen, 16, set a world record in the women’s 400 individual medley — only the third mark to fall since hightech bodysuits were banned at the end of 2009. She won in 4:28.43, breaking the mark of 4:29.45 by Australia’s Stephanie Rice at the 2008 Games. American Elizabeth Beisel took silver and China’s Li Xuanxu grabbed the bronze.
Sun Yang flirted with a world record in the men’s 400 freestyle. He took gold in 3:40.14, just off the mark of 3:40.07 by Germany’s Paul Biedermann in a rubberized suit three years ago. When it was done, Sun propped himself on the lane rope, pumping his fist and splashing the water.
South Korea’s Park Taehwan won silver in 3:42.06, fortunate even to take part after initially being disqualified for a false start in the prelims. The ruling was overturned by governing body FINA a couple of hours later on appeal. Peter Vanderkaay of the United States won the bronze.
Australia captured gold in the women’s 400 freestyle relay with an Olympic record of 3:33.15, rallying to pass the Americans and hold off the fast-charging Netherlands.
The United States got off to a blistering start with Missy Franklin swimming leadoff under world-record pace, and the Americans were still ahead after Jessica Hardy went next. But the Australians rallied behind Brittany Elmslie on the third 100, and Melanie Schlanger held on at the end, with Ranomi Kromowidjojo closing fast to give the Netherlands a silver in 3:33.79.
The other members of the winning team were Alicia Coutts and Cate Campbell.
The Americans slipped to the bronze in 3:34.24, but that was still good enough to give Natalie Coughlin the 12th medal of her career, tying Dara Torres and Jenny Thompson as the most decorated U.S. female Olympians in any sport.
Sports, Pages 23 on 07/29/2012