OMAHA, NEB. — Michael Phelps finally made it to the pool at Olympic Trials on Tuesday and easily posted the best qualifying time of the morning in the 200-meter butterfly despite "dragging" his legs through the preliminary heat.
"I just wanted to swim," he said after finishing in 1 minute, 56.68 seconds. "That was the most annoying part, having to wait this long. But I'm happy to get the first one under way."
He's used to more crammed trials schedules, but given that he no longer swims the 400-meter individual medley or the 200-meter freestyle, he had nothing to do but watch his friends the first two days of the meet.
Boomer Phelps was in the stands, watching his dad get to the business of qualifying for a fifth Olympics. As usual, the record-setting gold medalist found plenty to pick at in his performance.
"Third turn was bad, awful, killed all the momentum," he said. "I feel like I didn't use much legs. I was kind of dragging them along most of the way. It's something to build off of for tonight."
He'll swim in a 200 fly semifinal Tuesday night as he attempt to qualify for Wednesday night's eight-man final.
His training partner, newly minted Olympian Chase Kalisz, also won his butterfly heat and qualified for the semifinals.