Olympic great Michael Phelps suffered the first big setback of his return to competition on Wednesday as a poor turn left him seventh in the 100m free at the US Swimming Championships.
In a finals field loaded with Olympic medalists, the 18-time Games champion made a mess of his turn at the 50m wall, and had no chance to challenge coming home in the race won by 2012 Olympic gold medalist Nathan Adrian.
“When I literally took a couple kicks and I barely passed the flags, I knew there was very little chance that I was going to run anybody down,” Phelps said. “It just kind of stinks that I missed the first wall.”
Photo: USA Today
Phelps ended a near two-year retirement in April, and the US championships are just his fourth meet since then and his first chance to qualify to represent the US at an international event — the Pan Pacific Championships Aug. 21 to 25 in Gold Coast, Australia.
He is slated to swim the 100m butterfly today — the event he has raced the most since his return — and the 100m backstroke and 200m individual medley tomorrow and on Sunday.
“I’m just trying to get a spot on the team and go from there,” Phelps said. “I am ready to have a day off and get ready for the 100 fly.”
The top four 100m free finishers earned PanPacs berths, and results from these championships and the meet in Australia will determine the US team for next year’s World Championships in Russia.
Adrian won in 48.31 seconds. Ryan Lochte, whose own collection of 11 Olympic medals includes five golds, stormed to second from lane eight in 48.96.
Jimmy Feigen was third in 48.98 and Conor Dwyer was fourth in 49.06. Phelps clocked 49.17.
“I’m pretty sure he just straight up missed the wall,” Adrian said of Phelps, whose epic Olympic campaigns never included the individual 100m free, but who has been a key part of American 4x100m free relay teams.
“I said: ‘Hey, good thing you’re the best swimmer of all time, you’re going to make the team anyway,” Adrian added of his post-race chat with Phelps.
Phelps’ coach Bob Bowman said there were some encouraging signs in Phelps’ performance on Wednesday night.
“I think we both felt good because he actually swam well tonight,” Bowman said. “He looked good in warm-up. This morning, he looked terrible.”
Missy Franklin, who followed up her four-gold performance at the London Olympics by winning a record six golds at last year’s World Championships, used a late surge to win the women’s 100m freestyle in 53.43.
Franklin powered past halfway leader Simone Manuel, who settled for silver in 53.66 — unable to match the career-best 53.60 she posted in the morning.
Shannon Vreeland was third in 54.14 and Abbey Weitzeil fourth in 54.38.
“I knew that Simone was right next to me and she always goes out so fast,” Franklin said. “I knew I was going to have to come home hard and I just tried to put my head down.”
Natalie Coughlin, owner of 12 Olympic medals, faded on the final lap and finished seventh.
While the top four finishers in the 100m and 200m freestyles earn PanPacs berths, only the winners of Wednesday’s remaining events were assured of spots.
World record-holder Katie Ledecky duly punched her ticket with a victory in the 800m freestyle in 8:18.47. The 17-year-old was well off the world mark of 8:11.00 she set on June 23, but easily out-paced runner-up Cierra Runge (8:24.69).
Tom Shields led from start to finish to win the men’s 200m butterfly in 1:55.09 — the third-fastest time in the world this year.
He held off a late charge by Olympic backstroke gold medalist Tyler Clary, who finished second in 1:56.00 with Chase Kalisz third in 1:56.50.
Cammile Adams won her third straight national title in the 200m butterfly in 2:07.12 and Connor Jaeger won the men’s 1,500m free in 14:51.06.
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was