OMAHA — Ryan Lochte walked out onto the pool deck just behind Michael Phelps — a precursor to how their actual race would go — and got a little too close, accidentally.
Lochte stepped on the back of Phelps’s heel, giving him a so-called flat tire. Phelps turned back.
“He was like, ‘What are you doing — trying to mess me up before the race?’ ” Lochte said, smiling. “That goofiness, that smiling that we have before the race, before the big event — that’s part of the great rivalry we have. It’s all fun and games, but when we step on the blocks we’re racers. As soon as we touch the wall, we go back to being our goofy selves.”
During the actual racing portion of the evening here at U.S. Olympic trials, neither disappointed in the most anticipated final of the week. Phelps led at each turn and held off Lochte during a furious freestyle finish, beating his longtime rival by 0.31 seconds to win the men’s 200-meter individual medley final. Both swimmers qualified to swim the event at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. No other finisher came within two and a half seconds of Lochte; it was clear from the very beginning of prelims that the two would finish 1-2. It was just a matter of which order.
Phelps has beaten Lochte each time the two have met in the 200 IM at U.S. Olympic trials or at Olympic Games — which has happened four times. But Lochte beat Phelps at the 2011 world championships — Lochte’s favorite 200 IM race, of course — and set the world record in the event while doing so.
“Ryan and I always have great races against one another,” Phelps said. “He and I have been racing each other since 2004. I think when we race, we bring each other to a different level. We take each other to that next step.”
Said Lochte: “Sometimes I think I wouldn’t be the swimmer I am today if I didn’t have Michael. We both push each other. We both bring the best out of each other.”
So many of those 33 combined Olympic medals have been earned in races in which both shared the same pool. These two have squared off at the 400 IM. Various freestyle events. Butterfly races. They’ve swam together on Olympic relays for more than a decade.
Now, both 31 years old and staring the end of their world-class careers in the face, their rivalry is more limited. They’ll face off just once in Rio, in the 200 IM, instead of nightly in past Games. They’ll both take more time to recover from the beating they’ve given their bodies. More massages. More rest. Perhaps more laughter, too.
But when they race, they’ll be as fierce as ever — and maybe a bit emotional. After they touched the wall Friday night, Lochte looked at Phelps and thought: At least this wasn’t the Olympics.
Yes, he still has another month to prepare for what will, hopefully, be their final showdown, and one with a gold medal at stake. But when these Games are done, and the final walls touched, Lochte’s mind will go to the same place it went Friday night.
“I was just thinking how our journey is coming to an end,” Lochte said. “Racing against each other for 13 years — It was really sentimental. It’s something I’m definitely going to cherish for the rest of my life, racing against him.”
PHOTOS: U.S. OLYMPIC SWIMMING TRIALS
