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London Olympics 2012: Michael Phelps Loses To Ryan Lochte In 400 IM

In what may not be the most shocking of events, 16-time Olympic gold medal winner Michael Phelps went down in the 400 IM on Saturday, his first Olympic loss in eight years. Ryan Lochte was the winner and Phelps didn't even make the podium, finishing fourth.

Phelps not winning the race isn't as surprising as him finishing fourth, considering he's won the same race at the past two Olympic games. Still, Lochte's winning time of 4:05.18 was more than a second behind the mark Phelps set in Beijing. Two ways to look at that: Phelps' record was obviously special and proved to be elusive here, but it also show how far behind Phelps is from his old form.

Lochte and Phelps are widely considered the favorites to finish one and two in these Summer Games, but the 400 IM on Friday was an indicator that those projections could easily go off course.

Read more Olympic coverage at the SB Nation hub page.

Photographs by jamesbrandon, jdtornow, phlezk, flygraphix, mcdlttx, tomasland, and literalbarrage used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.