Tyler Clary beats Ryan Lochte to win 200m backstroke
United States' Tyler Clary celebrates his gold medal finish in the men's 200-meter backstroke swimming final at the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. (Aug. 2, 2012) Credit: AP
LONDON -- Tyler Clary of the United States passed defending champion Ryan Lochte on the last lap and set an Olympic record to win the 200-meter backstroke at the London Games on Thursday.
Clary clocked 1 minute, 53.41 seconds to improve on the previous mark of 1:53.94 set by Lochte at the 2008 Beijing Games in a now-banned bodysuit.
Ryosuke Irie of Japan touched in 1:53.78 to take the silver medal and Lochte finished in 1:53.94 for bronze.
Lochte was hoping to pull off an impressive double, swimming the finals of the 200 backstroke and 200 individual medley about a half-hour apart. He didn't get off to a good start, fading in his first race to a bronze medal in the back.
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