Trials Throwback: Men’s 400 IM in 2008

Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

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Less than two weeks to go until Olympic Trials get underway in Omaha, Neb. But before the meet, we wanted to look back at some of the great moments from past editions of the meet held inside the CenturyLink Center. Welcome to #TrialsThrowback!

Where better to begin #TrialsThrowback than with the first final from the first Olympic Trials held in Omaha? After all, that was the debut of the fireworks show-at-pool atmosphere that has become representative of the event itself.

It was also perhaps the best-ever duel between two men who have had more than their fair share of tight encounters over the years: Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte. Phelps had won gold and Lochte silver at the World Championships the year before, but Phelps beat Lochte by three-and-a-half seconds, clocking a world record-time of 4:06.22.

Lochte qualified first out of prelims, and Phelps secured lane five. Despite the presence of veteran Robert Margalis and future Olympian Tyler Clary in the field, no one expected anyone besides Phelps and Lochte to qualify for Beijing in the event.

Phelps established a bodylength lead after the butterfly leg and then promptly sent the crowd into a frenzy when he flipped eight one-hundredths of a second ahead of his own world record-pace at the 150. But Lochte closed the gap slightly on that leg, and then pulled dead even with Phelps on the breaststroke.

Lochte briefly nudged ahead with about 125 meters to go, but it was Phelps who beat Lochte to the wall at the 300, 3:08.45 to 3:08.47. The two went head-to-head down the pool as NBC’s cameras zoomed in on the duo from the side—no one else was in view.

But then Phelps reached down into his bag of tricks and pulled out a signature move. He flipped just two tenths of a second ahead of Lochte, but seven powerful dolphin kicks off the wall gave him a half-bodylength lead.

Lochte was not done, battling back with 25 meters to go, but he ran out of gas the last 50.

And so they touched, Phelps in 4:05.25, Lochte in 4:06.08—both under the existing world record.

Photo Courtesy: OMEGA Timing

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