Michael Phelps Shockingly 0-for-2 After Ryan Lochte Can't Hold US Relay Lead

Michael Phelps rebounded from a disastrous opening day at the 2012 Olympics with a magnificent second leg of the 4x100-meter freestyle relay on Sunday. Amazingly, though, his first gold medal still eludes the swimming superstar two events into the London Games.

Phelps' record setting run of eight gold medals at the Beijing Games was an incredible display of skill. To be fair, though, there was also a fair amount of luck thrown in.

His narrowest-possible margin .01 second win over Milorad Čavić in the 100-meter butterfly went beyond luck. It looked like divine intervention helped Phelps hit the wall first.

Through hist first two days of the London Games, Phelps' luck appears to have run out.

The U.S. swim team made the decision to move Phelps into the second slot of the relay team, with Lochte being entrusted to anchor the team. 

Phelps swam an impressive 47.11 on his leg, widening the surprising lead Nathan Adrian provided. The U.S. seemed to be cruising to gold half-way through the race and held a half-second lead when Cullen Jones touched after 300 meters.

Lochte was very fast in his opening 50, clinging to a three-tenths of a second lead.

Then he ran out of steam on his final lap. He was three seconds slower in his final 50 meters, surrendering the lead to France.

He was more than a half-second slower than Phelps.

For the first time, Phelps won a silver medal in the Olympic games. For the first time, he got a taste of what he's doled out 14 times before.

Perhaps having the French team turn the table on him and the U.S. team is mere justice for Team USA's shocking comeback over France in this event four years ago.

It is certainly a sign that luck is no longer sitting next to Phelps as he's chasing the all-time Olympic medal record.

Phelps still has five races left to pick up the two medals he needs to surpass the mark of 18 set by Larisa Latynina of the former Soviet Union.

One of those races is the 4x100-meter medley relay, where the U.S. is heavily favored. He's the two-time defending champion in three more—the 200-meter individual medley, the 100-meter freestyle and the 200-meter butterfly.

Coming into these games, no male swimmer had won a gold medal in the same event in three consecutive Olympics.

Phelps won't need luck to get to 19 medals. He'll do that based on his skill. But fans shouldn't be surprised if his gold tally is well short of 2008.