In his taper meet debut at the 2015 US Nationals, Michael Phelps wasted no time asserting himself as one of the world’s best swimmers in 2015. In his first event, the 200 meter fly, he rocketed from 8th seed to 1st seed with a 1:55.15.
Phelps split 25.92/28.93/29.82/30.48 on the way to his final time, by far the fastest he’s been since the London 2012 Olympics. He was a 1:57.62 back in June at the Arena Pro Swim Santa Clara. Prior to that, he swam a rough 2:00.63 at Arena Pro Swim Charlotte.
That swim was the fastest time done by an American in 2015, faster than both Tom Shields (1:55.75) and Tyler Clary (1:55.86) at the FINA World Championships.
The most likely to challenge him in the final is Jack Conger. Conger swam a best time to put up a 1:56.19 in prelims, just behind Phelps on their heat. He was out slower at the 100 (56.26) but was able to close the gap some on the back half in 59.93. Conger seemed to be cruising through the middle part of this race. His 50 splits were 25.72/30.54/31.15/28.78.
We haven’t seen a rested Phelps swim this race in a long time, so we’ll have to wait for finals to see if Phelps can drop his back half, of if Conger will dominate through that part of the race.
If that kind of improvement from his in-season times translates into Phelps’ other swims, we could see some more of him in the 2015 world top 10 rankings. He’ll swim the 100 fly, 200 I.M., and 200 breast later this week.
Michael my Congrats for the invent 200m I was swim in those years 70-80’s . I still love swim and swim for life
Hahaha…love reading these comments after MP dropped a 1.52.94
the comments where people thought he was done, where are you now?
Seriously some people said that on swimswam?
But it’s still too early to judge.
Can he still multiple the races? Can he still swim 2 very fast races on the same day?
His best chance of gold in Rio in individual is more in the 200 IM or in fly events?
Should he specialize just for the 100 fly or should he continue to swim the 200-meter races?
Still swimming freestyle but just for relays?
These are the many questions I wonder right now and we’ll have the first answers after that meet.
We are still here? Where are all of the Phans who said he would win 4-5 more golds in Rio, right after he announced his comeback? They have been hiding for 18months?
He would be a great help to Team USA in the relays. Individual Golds are going to be tough to win.
1:52.94.
Strange, I’m not seeing anymore posts about how Phelps is too old for the 200 fly. Cseh probably disagrees with them as well.
I’m not sure we can compare.
Cseh still has the fire in him. No olympic gold medal. And 2017 world championships at home.
MP has done everything since 2000 in the 200 fly.
It’s not just a question of age but also a question of motivation to train hard every day.
By the way Cseh is now entirely focused on fly for the end of his career and it pays off.
Here I am, at your service. I wont jump on the bandwagon and once again I say, use the 200 fly only as a training tool, concentrate on 100s of strokes and 200 IM.
Conger’s last 50 was 28.78, in prelims when he had no reason to push. Interesting.
IMO, in tonight’s swim for MP:
-slower that 1:54.5 would be disappointing
-under 1:54.00 would be awesome (I predicted 1:53.8 a couple days ago)
-under 1:53.5 would be exceptional
You can bet he’ll want to put up the world’s number 1 time, so I fully expect him to shoot for under Cseh’s 1:53.48.
Well stated! I’m hoping Conger can get a 1:55 low or 1:54. Would be nice to have a chance at two medals next year in this event.
Still has some work to do before he can match a rejuvenated Laszlo Cseh – could be close in Rio 🙂
MP is still MP
love this dude 😀 😀 😀
A 1:55 low in 200 fly is pretty good considering he was 2:00 just a few months ago. I really think he can go a 1:55 low or 1:54 high in the 200IM based on how he looked.