Phelps Irked Despite Two Wins
Swimmers' Times in High-Tech Suits Cause a Stir at U.S. Championships
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Thursday, July 9, 2009
INDIANAPOLIS, July 8 -- Michael Phelps muttered angrily as he got out of the water Wednesday night at the U.S. swimming championships. He spewed extremely unprintable things.
This was surprising.
He had just won his second of two finals, securing berths in the 200-meter freestyle and 200 butterfly at the world championships in Rome later this month.
He had officially overcome a tumultuous offseason that included six months of no training, a three-month ban for bad behavior and serious consideration of retirement. He had gone 2 for 2 on his first night back of serious, this-really-matters swimming, winning the 200 free in 1 minute 44.23 seconds and the 200 fly in 1:52.76.
Yet Phelps fumed and talked to himself.
"I'm not happy," Phelps told reporters later when asked about his obvious dismay. "That's one of the things that's really going to motivate me, these races today. . . . Some things happened today that are going to be helpful for me to swim faster."
Phelps, 24, declined to elaborate on those "things." He, perhaps coincidentally, also declined to elaborate on his feelings about the latest high-tech speedsuits that have caused so much controversy in the sport recently -- and which happened to be worn by the two men who finished second to him Wednesday.
In the 200 fly, Phelps beat Tyler Clary, 20, who sported one of the most popular and controversial new suits, a Jaked01. With his finish in 1:53.64, which makes him the fourth-fastest man ever in the event, he dropped nearly four seconds from the personal best he set in June and more than eight seconds from the personal best he set in May.
In the 200 free, David Walters, 21, also sported a Jaked01 and finished second in 1:44.95, 1.62 seconds faster than his previous best. Walters not only hung with Phelps, he topped Phelps's pal Ryan Lochte, who finished third in 1:45.66, thereby keeping Lochte off of the world championship team in that event.
Walters, who won an Olympic gold swimming a preliminary leg of the 400 free relay last year, said he chose the "Ferrari red" Jaked01 suit because "objects that are red look faster than they actually are."
"Everybody in that heat I look up to," he said. "I'll take the win, but I know any other day those guys would win."
Clary, this year's national champion in the 400-yard individual medley from the University of Michigan, prevented Michigan's Dan Madwed, who came home in 1:56.13, from making the world team in the 200 fly. Madwed used to train at the North Baltimore Aquatic Club, Phelps's home club.
