Olympic Swimming 2012: Swimmers Who Benefited from Team USA's Inconsistency

Swimming superstars Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte were supposed to win everything in the pool at the 2012 Olympics.

Well, at least, that’s what the media made it sound like.

Phelps and Lochte did rack up the medals—six individually between the two of them, plus two relays—but coming off a Games in which Phelps took home eight golds, they still failed to meet expectations. Here are three swimmers that took advantage of Team USA’s inconsistency to steal the spotlight.

3. Tyler Clary

OK, Tyler Clary didn’t take advantage of Team USA’s inconsistency—he’s on Team USA. But he did benefit from Lochte’s.

Lochte defeated Clary in the 200-meter backstroke at the 2011 World Championships by almost two seconds. Clary was forced to settle for bronze, while Lochte wore gold around his neck. In London, their roles switched.

Clary won gold and perhaps emerged as the U.S.’s next great swimmer, while Lochte took bronze.

2. Chad le Clos

South Africa’s Chad le Clos shocked the world once, and he almost did it twice.

Phelps was leading the entire race in the 200-meter butterfly, but he reached for the wall too early and le Clos beat him to it by 0.05 seconds. After Phelps had won multiple races in Beijing by don’t-blink margins, Le Clos gave him a taste of his own medicine.

le Clos also took silver in the 100-meter butterfly, losing to Phelps by just 0.23 seconds.

1. Yannick Agnel

You could make a strong case that Yannick Agnel of France is now the best swimmer in the world. This year, he wasn’t nearly as dominant as Phelps was in 2008, but he outperformed both Phelps and Lochte head-to-head in London.

At the 2011 Worlds, Lochte won gold in the 200-meter freestyle. In this year’s 200 free, though, Agnel blew him away by almost two seconds, taking gold. Lochte didn’t even medal.

Lochte also inherited a lead on the last leg of the 4x100-meter freestyle, but Agnel stole it and the gold medal from Team USA by swimming a lap one second faster than him. Agnel also recorded a faster leg than Phelps in the 4x200-meter freestyle, but Phelps’ teammates had built up too large of a lead for Agnel to come back.

David Daniels is a featured columnist at Bleacher Report and a syndicated writer.

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