Michael Phelps lost to fellow Olympic teammate Ryan Lochte in the 100-meter butterfly final, which was his first race since the London 2012 Games and he came in second place in the final at the Arena Grand Prix in Arizona and that race is the start for his comeback as he begins to train to compete in the next Summer games in Rio 2016.
Phelps performed well in his first event back and Jason Dunford of Kenya came in third place and now the Olympic champion can put his first race in 20 months behind him as he pushes towards the next summer games. Phelps has competed in four previous games and the Rio Summer Olympics in 2016 would most likely be his final major competition and he still has the record for the event he competed in on Thursday.
The race saw Lochte finish in 51.93 seconds, which is now the second-fastest in the world for the season and Phelps did it in 52.13 and that was the fourth best in the world this year. Phelps still clearly can swim and while he came in second place, it was his first event back after being out for 20 months and after the event he said he felt good getting back into the pool. Phelps won his head with the best score in the preliminaries and he now is looking to add to his total of 22 Olympic medals.
"I felt like a summer league swimmer today," Phelps said, smiling, after the heat. "I felt like I should have my heat and lane written on my hand so I didn't forget it."
