Chad le Clos says Michael Phelps ‘can keep quiet now’ amid butterfly trash talk

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Michael Phelps and Chad le Clos, once so friendly that they reportedly agreed to go swimming with sharks together (though there aren’t reports it actually happened), don’t appear to be on the best of terms at the moment.

It all started May 15.

Michael Phelps, who had sworn off swimming the 200m butterfly in his comeback in 2014, had started to warm to re-adding his signature event. Even though it’s among the more grueling of the five individual events he swam in his prime in 2004 and 2008.

“It’s interesting watching the world in this event,” Phelps told media at a meet in Charlotte, N.C., on May 15. “If you look at what [Tom] Malchow won in 2000 [his time at the Sydney Olympics], still what everybody’s going nowadays. It’s still not that fast an event.”

Malchow won gold in 2000 in 1:55.35, when a 15-year-old Phelps debuted at the Olympics and placed fifth.

When Phelps made those comments May 15, two men worldwide had broken 1:55 since the London Olympics, while top times in most other events had dropped more significantly in the same 15-year period.

Well, the man who beat Phelps in the 200m butterfly at the London Olympics did not take kindly to Phelps’ comments.

“He’s been talking a lot of smack in the media about how slow the butterfly is, so I just can’t wait until I race him,” South African Chad le Clos said Wednesday at the World Championships, according to The Associated Press.

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On Friday, Phelps clocked the fastest 200m butterfly in the world for the year, a 1:52.94 at the U.S. Championships. The time would have won the 2015 World title by .54 of a second, over longtime Hungarian rival Laszlo Cseh and le Clos. It would have won the 2012 Olympic title by .02 over le Clos.

It was Phelps’ fastest time in the event since his world record of 1:51.51 set at the 2009 World Championships while wearing a now-outlawed fast body suit.

On Saturday, le Clos repeated as 100m butterfly World champion, clocking an African record 50.56.

“I just did a [100m butterfly] time that [Phelps] hasn’t done in four years, so he can keep quiet now,” le Clos said on Eurosport. Six years, actually. Phelps hasn’t clocked 50.56 or better in the 100m butterfly since 2009, when he set the world record of 49.82.

Le Clos went on in speaking to more media in Kazan on Saturday.

“I’m just very happy that he’s back to his good form, so he can’t come out and say, ‘Oh, I haven’t been training’ or all that rubbish that he’s been talking,” he said, according to The Associated Press. “Next year [at Rio] is going to be Muhammad AliJoe Frazier.

“Look, I don’t want to say it’s easy to swim by yourself [against lesser competition at the U.S. Championships than at Worlds], but it’s a lot harder when you know Chad le Clos is coming back at you the last 50 meters. That’s what he’s got to think about really.”

Phelps, the three-time Olympic 100m fly champ who is swimming the 100m fly at the U.S. Championships in San Antonio on Saturday, had a best 100m butterfly time in 2014 of 51.17.

Also Saturday, Cseh said that he was aware of Phelps’ 200m butterfly time from the night before.

“It’s quite good, but it doesn’t matter because I won the World Championship,” Cseh, whose five Olympic medals over three Games all came in events won by Phelps, said on Eurosport.

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Coco Gauff into French Open quarterfinals, where Iga Swiatek may await

Coco Gauff French Open
Getty
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Coco Gauff swept into the French Open quarterfinals, where she could play Iga Swiatek in a rematch of last year’s final.

Gauff, the sixth seed, beat 100th-ranked Slovakian Anna Karolina Schmiedlova 7-5, 6-2 in the fourth round. She next plays Swiatek or 66th-ranked Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko, who meet later Monday.

Gauff earned a 37th consecutive win over a player ranked outside the top 50, dating to February 2022. She hasn’t faced a player in the world top 60 in four matches at Roland Garros, but the degree of difficulty is likely to ratchet up in Wednesday’s quarterfinals.

Swiatek won all 12 sets she’s played against Gauff, who at 19 is the only teenager in the top 49 in the world.

FRENCH OPEN DRAWS: Women | Men | Broadcast Schedule

Also Monday, No. 7 seed Ons Jabeur of Tunisia dispatched 36th-ranked American Bernarda Pera 6-3, 6-1, breaking all eight of Pera’s service games.

Jabeur, runner-up at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open last year, has now reached the quarterfinals of all four majors.

Jabeur next faces 14th-seeded Beatriz Haddad Maia, who won 6-7 (3), 6-3, 7-5 over Spaniard Sara Sorribes Tormo, who played on a protected ranking of 68. Haddad Maia became the second Brazilian woman to reach a Grand Slam quarterfinal in the Open Era (since 1968) after Maria Bueno, who won seven majors from 1959-1966.

Pera, a 28 year-old born in Croatia, was the oldest U.S. singles player to make the fourth round of a major for the first time since Jill Craybas at 2005 Wimbledon. Her defeat left Gauff as the lone American singles player remaining out of the 35 entered in the main draws.

The last American to win a major singles title was Sofia Kenin at the 2020 Australian Open. The 11-major drought matches the longest in history (since 1877) for American men and women combined.

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U.S. earns first three-peat in Para hockey world championship history

Para Ice Hockey
International Paralympic Committee
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The U.S. trounced rival Canada 6-1 to become the first nation to three-peat in world Para hockey championship history.

Tournament MVP Declan Farmer scored twice, and Josh Misiewicz, David Eustace, Jack Wallace and Kevin McKee added goals. Jen Lee made eight saves in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, on Sunday.

Farmer, who had nine goals in five games for the tournament, also scored twice in Paralympic final wins over Canada in 2018 and 2022 and the last world championship final against Canada in 2021. Farmer, 25, already owns the career national team record of more than 250 points.

The U.S. beat Canada in a third consecutive world final dating to 2019, but this was the most lopsided gold-medal game in championship history. The U.S. also won the last four Paralympic titles dating to 2010.

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