FRESH from grabbing his second bronze medal of the Olympics, Australia’s Andrew Lauterstein has told of his desire to crush Michael Phelps’ dream of a record eighth gold medal in tomorrow’s 4x100m medley relay. Phelps’ moment of truth will be revealed tomorrow when he shoots for his final gold medal in the medley relay, with Australia, according to Lauterstein, desperate to wreck his party.
The Australian team is likely to feature Lauterstein, Eamon Sullivan, Brenton Rickard and Hayden Stoeckel, all medallists in invididual events this week.
“All four swimmers have broken the Australian record, all are Olympic medallists so hopefully we can walk away with a medal,” Lauterstein said.
“We’re going to give the Americans a good shake, hopefully stop Phelpsy from getting his eighth gold.
“That’s the plan.”
Phelps is concern ed about the Australian team and heard Lauterstein’s warning.
The American said today: ”The Australians are our biggest opponents.”
Lauterstein was buzzing after claiming his second bronze of the week in today’s 100m butterfly final.
Earlier in the week he was part of Australia’s 4x100m freestyle relay team which finished third behind the US and France.
The 21-year-old was well beaten by Phelps who touched out Serbia’s Milorad Cavic by .01sec in the closest of finishes.
Phelps’ victory meant he equalled Mark Spitz’s record of seven Olympic gold medals at the one Games, winning the event in Olympic record time of 50.58secs.
Phelps never looked like winning after turning in seventh place but he finished like Bernborough to pip the Serbian, who later fired in a protest thinking the touch pads were faulty, but it was dismissed quickly.
Lauterstein claimed a big scalp in the race when world record holder Ian Crocker of the US finished fourth.
“It was just a great race to be a part of, it was an absolute spectacle,” Lauterstein said.
“I said it yesterday, when you hear Michael Phelps do his arm slaps it get’s your heart rate racing.
“So to handle the pressure again and come out and do another PB, that’s three PB’s in three swims, is pretty special.”
Lauterstein said he was oblivious to the amazing performance of Phelps.
“I had no idea…I knew that I wasn’t winning,” Lauterstein said.
“I could see the guy next to me out ahead of me and I could feel the Kenyan right next to me but apart from that I had no idea.”
An emotional Lauterstein also told how he savoured the moment of his first individual Olympic medal.
“I made Michael laugh on the way out to the medal ceremony by telling him to ‘really enjoy it mate”’, Lauterstein said.
“I couldn’t believe I was about to cry when I heard the American national anthem.
“I don’t a have a very good memory, so I just tried to take everything in.”
from: news.com.au
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