Phelps still has racer’s edge: Lochte

Swimming legend finishes second in comeback race.

MESA: Michael Phelps might be rusty after a 20-month layoff, but rival Ryan Lochte says the swimming superstar will always be able to count on his racer’s instincts.

“Racing against Michael is probably the hardest thing to do, but I love it,” said Lochte.

“Any race he swims, he’s going to make the other swimmers hurt. That’s what he does — he’s a racer.”

Lochte managed to get his hand on the wall ahead of Phelps in the 100m butterfly final at the Mesa Grand Prix on Thursday, Phelps’s first final since the 2012 Olympics.

Phelps retired after the London Games after a stellar career in which he won 22 Olympic medals — an astounding 18 of them gold. The pinnacle of the US superstar’s Olympic career came in Beijing in 2008, when he won eight gold medals in eight events.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 26^th, 2014.

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