LONDON – Ryan Lochte strolled the deck of the Olympic Aquatics Centre wearing diamonds in his mouth and lime-green sneakers on the feet that powered him through the water faster than anyone else.
Beaming, he chomped playfully on his gold medal while Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” blared throughout the massive arena.
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Michael Phelps? He was nowhere to be found.
Not during the race. Not when it came time to hand out the medals.
On a stunner of an opening night at the pool in London, Phelps was routed by his American rival in the 400-meter individual medley, losing to Lochte by more than four seconds Saturday.
That’s not all: The winningest Olympian ever didn’t win any medal at all, the first time that’s happened in a race of this magnitude since he was a 15-year-old kid competing in just one event at the Sydney Games, a dozen years ago.
“It was horrible,” Phelps told Coach Bob Bowman when he climbed out.
Bowman’s reply: “It was.”
Lochte turned the much-anticipated duel with Phelps into a blowout, raising serious questions about whether the guy who has won 14 gold medals and 16 medals overall has anything left for his Olympic farewell.
Phelps is planning to retire as soon as he finishes the last of his seven races in London, but looked ready to call it a career while struggling just to pull himself from the water.
He was totally spent. He was thoroughly beaten, perhaps signaling a changing of the guard.
“This is my year,” said Lochte, who popped in his grillz — diamond-studded mouth jewelry — for the ceremony. “I know it and I feel it because I’ve put in hard work. I’ve trained my butt off for four years and there’s no better way to start this Olympics off than getting gold.”
For Phelps, it couldn’t have been more out of character. He barely qualified for the final, a performance that hinted at trouble. Trouble indeed. Phelps struggled to finish fourth, blown out by Lochte, and beaten by Thiago Pereira of Brazil and Kosuke Hagino of Japan.
“It was just a crappy race,” Phelps said. “I felt fine the first 200, then, I don’t know. They just swam a better race than me, a smarter race than me, and were better prepared. That’s why they’re on the medal stand.”
Lochte took gold with a time of 4 minutes, 5.18 seconds. Pereira (4:08.86) and Hagino (4:08.94) were well back but ahead of Phelps, fourth in 4:09.28 — nearly 5 1/2 seconds off his world record from the Beijing Olympics and not nearly as fast as he went during the U.S. trials last month.
Since finishing fifth in his lone event at Sydney, the 200 butterfly, Phelps was 16 of 16 when it came to winning medals at the Olympics — 14 golds and two bronzes. That run is over.
Lochte climbed out of the pool with a big smile, waving to the crowd and looking about as fresh as he did at the start. He had predicted this would be his year and, for the first race of the Olympics, was on the mark.
“I think I’m kind of in shock right now,” he said. As for Phelps, “I know he gave it everything he had. That’s all you can ask for.”
Phelps was trying to become the first male swimmer to win the same individual event at three straight Olympics. He’ll have three more chances at a threepeat, having also won the 200 individual medley, plus the 100 and 200 butterfly, at Athens and Beijing.
But he’ll need a major comeback. After one race, he looks nothing like the swimmer who won six gold medals in Athens, then a record eight in Beijing to break Mark Spitz’s record.
“I’m surprised and not pleasantly,” Bowman said. “I expected he’d be in the 4:06 range.”
Phelps fell behind right from the start in the butterfly, his trademark stroke. From there it was all Lochte. He stretched his margin in the backstroke and breast stroke, then cruised to the gold in the freestyle.
“It’s frustrating, that’s all I can say. It’s pretty upsetting,” Phelps said. “The biggest thing now is to try to look forward. I have a bunch of other races, and hopefully we can finish a lot better than how we started.”
China had a big night, claiming a couple of gold medals.
Ye Shiwen, 16, set a world record in the women’s 400 individual medley, only the third mark to fall since high-tech bodysuits were banned at the end of 2009. She won in 4:28.43, breaking the mark of 4:29.45 by Stephanie Rice of Australia at the 2008 Beijing Games. American Elizabeth Beisel took silver and China’s Li Xuanxu grabbed the bronze.
Sun Yang flirted with a world record in the men’s 400 freestyle. He won in 3:40.14, just off the mark of 3:40.07 by Germany’s Paul Biedermann in a rubberized suit three years ago.
Australia captured gold in the women’s 400 freestyle relay with an Olympic record of 3:33.15, rallying to pass the Americans and hold off the Netherlands.
The U.S. got off to a blistering start with Missy Franklin swimming leadoff under world-record pace, and the Americans were still ahead after Jessica Hardy went next. But the Australians rallied behind Brittany Elmslie on the third 100, and Melanie Schlanger held on at the end, with Ranomi Kromowidjojo closing fast to give the Netherlands a silver in 3:33.79.
The other members of the winning team were Alicia Coutts and Cate Campbell.
The Americans slipped to the bronze, but that was enough to give Natalie Coughlin the 12th medal of her career, tying Dara Torres and Jenny Thompson as the most decorated U.S. female Olympians in any sport.
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