Produced by Coleman Hodges.
Reported by Anne Lepesant.
Michael Phelps of North Baltimore picked up another gold medal, completing his trifecta for the national championships. After first-place finishes in the 200 IM and 100 fly, Phelps closed out the meet with a dominant win in the 200 fly, going 1:56.11. Phelps took it out hard, turning at the 50 in 25.7, already a half body-length ahead of the field. He extended that lead at the 100; only Mack Darragh of Missouri was anywhere near him.
Both Dakota Hodgson of Nashville Aquatic Club and Chase Kalisz of North Baltimore moved up on the field over the second half. Darragh held on through the 150 but fell off pace over the last 50 and came home in a 33. Kalisz split a 29.9 and a 30.5 over the second half to earn the silver medal with 1:57.19. Hodgson was third in 1:59.09, while Darragh got fourth with 1:59.34, just 2/100 ahead of Sebastien Rousseau of Gator Swim Club.
Tom Shields of California Aquatics was the start-to-finish leader of the B final, winning with 1:59.84.
Just wondering, why was it still significantly slower than his 1:52.94 time at the Nationals in San Antonio?
I would think it has a lot to do with not being tapered or shaved. It is the second in season meet and he and most of the other swimmers are in heavy training. As long as he drops time consistently from meet to meet he is on course to be at peak performance when it matters. This has been his pattern throughout his career. I cannot think of any reason in this world to change that now.
BTW, Tom Shields was tapered and shaved for this meet and it seemed to me that his goal was to beat Phelps. The 100 fly was very close but he lost. In 200 fly he ended up swimming in the B final.… Read more »
Couple things before Austin? You mean, like, listen to your coach?! 😉
Yeah, coacherik, my eyebrows went up on the “I did it anyway” remark. Sounds like a rebellious 16 year old.
U know what guys ; the Goat does what he wants – even not listening to a coach . He can probably afford to do so right now . That`s it
Or an 18 time Gold medal winning champion…I’m quite sure at crunch time, he listens to his coach. But really, who’s gonna nitpick over a non-issue like that? 22 medals says it all.
22 medals with a coach showing him the way….the entire way.
I think it’s interesting how much more Phelps has been sharing on his actual swimming. I feel like in the past he never went into this much detail, like usually giving very vague, media friendly responses to questions. “There’s a lot of things I need to go back and work on,” is my favorite.
But recently he’s been elaborating on “all of those things” he’s been working on, and it’s really interesting. Just in this interview he was giving specific spit times and goal times he wants to hit, elaborating the actual stroke mechanics that he wants to work on. This is new for Phelps, I think in addition to opening up more about his personal life he’s been… Read more »
Also thank you Swimswam for the great interviews. I’m sure you guys are a big part of why he’s been opening up about the specifics. You provide him and other swimmers an outlet to speak about the nerdier side of swimming, mostly cause this is a place for the nerdiest of fans.
I like that too. I learn so much when he elaborates. I wish the other pro swimmers would do that. Many of them in the interview just say they want to “swim faster” which sounds either flip or mindless.