Oh dear, Michael Phelps came second in a swimming race for the first time in over a year. This is just as the summer swim season heats up and the world championship swimming contest looms in the near future.
Yesterday, while competing in the Charlotte UltraSwim swim meet in North Carolina, the multi Olympic gold medalist and best swimmer in the world came second in the 100-meter backstroke to swimmer Aaron Peirsol! Michael Phelps was trailing by half a second at the turn and just could not make up the difference.
Peirsol finished the backstroke race in 53.32 seconds while Michael Phelps took a relatively disappointing 53.79 seconds to cover the 100-metres. Less than half a second might not sound like much but it is a good half body length. Not that coming scond to Peirsol is any great disgrace. Currently, the world record in this event is owned by Peirsol. He set this swimming record in the heats of the Beijing Olympic games at a blistering 52.54 seconds. Peirsol was wearing his new Arena swim suit. There was no word on the swim suit worn by Phelps.
Frankly, I see this as a good thing for Michael Phelps. No swimmer or any athlete at all can win all of the time. Having a challenge or a challenger can be a huge motivator. I hope this shakes the tiny speedo swim suit wearer out of complacency and into serious training mode. If he wants to maintain his status as the current reigning swimming world superstar he needs to stop acting like a drink-addled celebrity and start focusing on his swimming training. He might want to ditch the distracting girlfriend to boot.
The 2012 London Olympic Games are only three years away. Michael Phelps has said he wants to be there and presumably he wants to match the success he had in Beijing. If he does in the 2012 London Olympic Games what he did in Beijing he will cement his status as the best swimmer in the world for his lifetime.
Michael Phelps continues to be the best swimmer in the world. He now might have to put some more time into wearing his swim suit.
