Even while undergoing the grueling training regimen highlighted in his new Under Armour ad that went viral earlier this week, 22-time Olympic medalist Michael Phelps still has his eye on the competition.
The 30-year-old recently spoke to SporTV specifically regarding his Brazilian rivals, giving a nod to the fact that host countries most often times perform better at their own Olympic Games with the home crowd and familiar surroundings on their side.
“Whoever is hosting the Olympics is so much better than they’ve ever been and it helps them propel into the future,” Phelps said during the interview posted by globo.com.
“Brazil has obviously become a strong swimming country and you can definitely expect them to be as prepared as they can be as the home country. They’ll probably be swimming faster than probably they ever have, which is good for the sport and good for the Olympics,” Phelps continued.
Specifically, Phelps points to Brazilians Cesar Cielo and Thiago Pereira among the tough competitors from the host nation looking to step it up come August. “I swam against Cielo and Thiago for years and years and years and both are very strong competitors.”
For his part, Pereira earned a FINA automatic qualifying time in the 200 IM while competing at the Brazilian Open last December. He’ll most likely enter the 200 breaststroke and 200 freestyle events at the 2nd Brazilian Olympic qualifying meet, the Maria Lenk Trophy, taking place in April.
In Cielo’s case, the 29-year-old pulled out of the Brazilian Open due to his ongoing shoulder injury, which leaves him with just the Maria Lenk at which to clock his qualifying times. Cesar earned gold and bronze in the 50m and 100m freestyle events, respectively, at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, following that up with a bronze in the 50m at the 2012 Games in London.
I strongly disagree. The British swam rather poorly at the 2012 Olympics
Phelps with big expectations for the Brazilians to “light it up”!!!
“Phelps” and “light it up” —- probably not the best pairing in the title.
I expect that too.
Every host nation of the olympic games performs so much better than usual.
Agreed. Not so much at Worlds.
Britain did well in London, but not in swimming. Admittedly they had a weaker swimming team than Brazil has going into Rio (probably – I’m not too familiar with Brazil’s swimming).