OMAHA – Michael Phelps said he didn't want to call his rivalry with Ryan Lochte a clash of the titans, although just by bringing it up, he sort of did.
Mark Humphrey, AP
Ryan Lochte (left) and Michael Phelps greet each other as Lochte leaves and Phelps arrives at a news conference at the U.S. Olympic swimming trials Saturday in Omaha.
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And why not call it that? The rivalry between them is the overriding theme of the U.S. Olympic swim trials that begin on Monday, and each one looked loose and relaxed talking about the other at back-to-back news conferences Saturday.
"He's the world's best swimmer — ever," Lochte said of his rival.
Sure, but is Lochte the best now? He has had great success against Phelps in the last two years. "Honestly, I'll have to let the swimming talk this next week," Lochte said, with a wide smile.
"For me to be in the same era as him, and to be in the same events as him, and being able to race him until the finish, it's awesome and I love it."
Still, Lochte believes this is his time. "That's just how my mind works," he said, "I always feel like I can win everything."
Phelps, for his part, allowed that Lochte "has destroyed me over the last couple of years at major meets." But the way Phelps sees it, "it all goes back to what I'm here to do. I have goals that I want to achieve and if I achieve those and still get beat, it happens."
Don't take that as any sort of concession.
"When Ryan and I get in the pool, I don't want him to win and he doesn't want me to win," Phelps said. "Out of the pool, we can sit there and we can all play our spades and we can joke around and have fun and we can relax, but when we step on the pool deck, that's sort of our battlefield."
Lochte said he can earn bonuses at the Olympics from his sponsors for specific medal counts, but he declined to say what they were. "I honestly don't pay attention to that," he said, "because once I start thinking about the money, start thinking about how many golds or how many medals, that's when I feel like swimming will no longer be fun for me."
Lochte, who has six Olympic medals to Phelps' 16, said he didn't know exactly which events he'll race, but he said four are certain: the 200 individual medley, the 400 IM, the 200 freestyle and the 200 backstroke. "The other seven" events that he's signed up for, he said, "we'll decide later. … If I'm up for it, I'll keep swimming."
Phelps is signed up for seven events and is unlikely to race in all of them. He played a game with reporters, who tried several ways of asking if he will compete in the 400 IM. Phelps grinned each time and said he had time to decide.
OK, then, when is Phelps' mustache coming off? "Whenever I shave," he said, laughing. "I can't give that away because if I shave it tomorrow that would mean I'm swimming the 400 IM."
Lochte, 27, said all the talk of rivalry is fine with him.
"I don't mind all the hoo-rah that people talk about me and Michael going head to head, because honestly it goes in one ear and out the other," Lochte said. "I really don't pay attention. I'm really lost in my own world and I just stay there."
Phelps, 26, has already said this will be his last Olympics and he said a friend suggested to him that this last hurrah is a way of putting a cherry on top of his otherworldly career. "We'll see after this week," Phelps said, "what size cherry I want to put on the top of my sundae."
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