Rival’s Fast Finish Propels Phelps to Another Record

[Woodmonkey]

OMAHA — For as long as he can remember, Ryan Lochte has played Lil Wayne to Michael Phelps’s Jay-Z in the 400-meter individual medley. For all his immense talent, Lochte has been unable to unseat the king, Phelps, who has owned the world record in the event since 2002.

At the Olympic trials four years ago, Lochte finished 10 seconds behind Phelps. By the 2007 world championships, he had narrowed the gap to three seconds. At the 2008 United States Olympic swimming trials here Sunday, Lochte came within a finishing kick of beating Phelps, who is chasing Mark Spitz’s record of seven gold medals in a single Olympics.

After staking Phelps to a body-length lead in the opening butterfly leg at the Qwest Center, Lochte closed the gap to a half-length in the backstroke and pulled even in the breaststroke. Both were under world-record pace with 50 meters remaining, but Lochte was spent.

The 22-year-old Phelps, meanwhile, found a gear that nobody else is familiar with, powering past Lochte to touch at 4 minutes 5.25 seconds, lowering his world record. Lochte was timed in 4:06.08, which also was under Phelps’s previous mark of 4:06.22.

In the second final of the night, Katie Hoff qualified for her second Olympics with a world record in the women’s 400 individual medley in a time of 4:31.12. In a mild upset, Larsen Jensen out-touched Peter Vanderkaay to win the 400 freestyle and break the American record. The second-place finisher in each event is virtually guaranteed a berth in Beijing.

Lochte, 23, emerged from the pool with the dazed look of a bridegroom who had been left at the altar. He had improved his personal best by more than three seconds, but that was small consolation. “Going into the race, I thought I could beat him,” he said, adding: “I hate to lose. I don’t like it at all.”

As Lochte stared at the times on the jumbo scoreboard, the only thing on his mind was revenge. “I know there are a lot of places where I can improve,” said Lochte, who won the silver in the 200 I.M. at the 2004 Games.

After pulling himself out of the pool, Phelps headed straight for Lochte on the pool deck and gave him a big smile and a warm embrace. As they stood next to each other, Phelps tousled Lochte’s tangled mop of hair and said, “I definitely wouldn’t have gone that fast if it hadn’t been for this guy.”

Later, after regaining his breath, Phelps elaborated. “I definitely didn’t want to lose that race,” he said. “I knew the last 50 was going to be a dogfight.”

Phelps and Lochte are polar opposites. Lochte has a silly, fun-loving nature that makes him an ideal foil for the intense, single-minded Phelps. “I’m definitely not that serious,” Lochte said. “I’m more of the laid-back, go-with-the-flow goofball.”

In May, Lochte sustained a sprained left ankle when his Doberman puppy, which he named Carter, after his idol, the rapper Lil Wayne, escaped out the front door of his Gainesville, Fla., home. While chasing the dog down the street, Lochte said he rolled his ankle.

That is his story, anyway, and he is sticking to it. Those in his inner circle grudgingly give Lochte a long leash. They know that like his 75-pound dog, Lochte chafes at being cooped up.

That is why his parents and coaches do not bother ordering him not to ride a skateboard before big meets. They look the other way when he packs his surfboard and steers his S.U.V. to the beach. And they bite their tongues when he appears in public trying to pass himself off as Lil Wayne’s suburban double, with gold chains weighing down his neck, baggy pants hanging off his hips and a diamond-encrusted grill glittering in his mouth.

John Naber, who set the world record in the 200-meter backstroke, which now belongs to Lochte, 31 years earlier, described him as “the Jason Castro of swimming.”

Like Castro, whose long dreadlocks, blue eyes and warm smile earned him a cult following this year on “American Idol,” Lochte is a fierce competitor disguised as a free spirit. “If you talk to him away from the pool, it’s hard to think he has the competitive instincts of an athlete,” Naber said Sunday.

In Lochte’s mind it was a toss-up as to which was the bigger event this month: the release of Lil Wayne’s newest album or the trials. He was the first on his block to get his hands on the CD. Listening to his favorite track, “Mr. Carter,” put Lochte in the right frame of mind for Sunday’s race, especially the line: “This right here is crazy. I — I feel Big!”

The Source