Swimming: Phelps aiming to bounce back in the pool

Swimmer cruises into 200m butterfly semis.

LONDON: Michael Phelps, trying to get his sputtering Olympics campaign in gear, cruised into the semi-finals of the 200m butterfly as teammate Ryan Lochte prepared for another assault.

Phelps, who rewrote Olympic history four years ago when he became the first athlete to win eight golds in a single Games to take his all time tally to 14, has yet to strike gold in London. After barely scraping into the final of the 400m medley, he was shut out of the medals in fourth place.

Phelps delivered an impressive 47.15 seconds second-leg in the 4x100m freestyle relay on Sunday night, but was denied gold as France seized the victory over the US on the final-leg.

“Getting last night out of the way was something that I needed,” said the superstar, who added his 400m medley disappointment had nothing to do with confidence but was just a poor swim. He pronounced himself satisfied with his fifth-fastest time in the 200m butterfly heats, led by Dinko Jukic ahead of Tyler Clary and Velimir Stjepanovic.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 31^st, 2012.