OMAHA — Everyone knew it would be a fiery race Monday night, but not like this.
The 400-meter individual medley at the U.S. Olympic swimming trials matched two-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps against two-time world champion Ryan Lochte, marking the biggest race of the meet in the first finals of the meet.
Enough fireworks for you? Phelps and Lochte had even more. A fire alarm went off in the middle of the night in their hotel — and then prerace flames accidentally shot up from the side of the pool during their breaststroke heat. “My first stroke and I’m going, ‘Something’s going on right now,’ ” Lochte said.
It was a good backdrop for a race that lived up to its hype. Lochte took an early lead. Phelps fell back to third as dark horse Tyler Clary grabbed first after the second leg, the backstroke. Then Lochte and Phelps took control during the breaststroke before Lochte cruised in the freestyle, beating Phelps by a body length in 4:07.06.
Phelps’ time of 4:07.89 was more than four seconds off his world record. Clary finished in 4:09.92.
The top two go to the London Olympics, but this is one race at the trials where winning mattered. Phelps vs. Lochte has become the best rivalry in swimming. Picture Yankees vs. Red Sox or Barcelona vs. Real Madrid without the fights.
Lochte, 27, has now beaten Phelps, 26, in the last three major meets and is a major favorite to end Phelps’ Olympic streak in London. “I can take a deep breath now, relax and whatever happens happens,” Lochte said. “I’m just going to go out there and have fun.”
There is a caveat, however. After winning his second 400 IM Olympic gold medal in Beijing in 2008, Phelps swore he’d never do the exhaustive race again. And he didn’t.
Then after a year and a half, he and his coach, Bob Bowman, decided that if he kept swimming, he must do one of his specialties. He has been sucking Lochte’s whitewater ever since Beijing, losing five of the last seven meetings in various races.
Phelps, whose 16 Olympic medals are two off the all-time record, sounded relieved afterward.
“There was a lot of discussion about me doing it and Bob and I tried a lot of different things,” Phelps said. “It came down to I wanted to do it. Having a year and a half off from it was good, but this is an event I’ve done for a long time and is something I’m kind of happy to finish off my career with.”
Phelps said the race “was a little painful” and it looked a lot worse halfway through when he didn’t have a clear Olympic berth. He stood third, going into his worst stroke, the breaststroke. But Lochte took the lead in the first 50, followed by Phelps a body length back and Clary trailing in third.
Clary, the one swimmer most affected by Phelps’ decision to return, declined to talk to the media afterward.
“I know how Tyler always swims that race,” Phelps said. “He’s a very strong front-half swimmer. I just tried to put myself in a good position for the first 200. All three of us were side by side by side and I was saying to Ryan upstairs that you could see the flames going off and the hear the excitement in the crowd.
“That definitely played a pretty big role in giving me a little extra energy the last 150.”
In the two other finals, Peter Vanderkaay, a bronze medalist in 2008 in the 200 freestyle, won the 400 freestyle in 3:47.67 with Conor Dwyer, the 2010 NCAA swimmer of the year at Florida, taking second in 3:47.83 despite coming in ranked 13th.
Also, as expected, world champion Elizabeth Beisel of the University of Florida easily won the 400 IM in 4:31.74, with Caitlin Leverenz of the University of California taking second in 4:34.48, more than four seconds ahead of Camille Adams.
John Henderson: 303-954-1299, or jhenderson@
