菲尔普斯奥运会首战失利

 LONDON – There was a shocking result in the very first swimming race at the London Olympics.

American swimmer Ryan Lochte won the men’s 400-meter individual medley¹ (4:05.18) by an impressive margin² of more than three and a half seconds, capturing the gold medal.

Brazil’s Thiago Pereira took the silver (4:08.86) and Japan’s Kosuke Hagino got the bronze (4:08.94).

While Lochte himself is a star and was one of the favorites, it was the placement of his superstar teammate Michael Phelps that came as a big surprise.  The record-setting eight-time Olympic gold medalist in Beijing had narrowly qualified³ for the final out of the morning heats and ended up fourth.

Phelps did not hide his disappointment.

 “It’s frustrating⁴.  It’s all I can say," he admitted.  "You know, it’s pretty upsetting.  But I think the biggest thing now is just to try to get past this and move forward.  I mean I have a bunch of other races and hopefully we can finish a lot better than how we started.”

Lochte said he was surprised Phelps was not next to him on the podium.

"I mean whenever Michael swims he’s always on the medal stand, no matter what," Lochte noted⁵.  "But he did 110%.  He gave it everything he had.”

 But it was not enough this time, and Lochte won the difficult race that features all four strokes: butterfly, back, breast and freestyle.

“Feels amazing that knowing the last four years I’ve put in that hard work that it finally paid off," Lochte said during post-race press conference, "and to not only swim for my country but to have my whole entire family there in the stands cheering for me definitely gave me a little bit more of a boost.”

Lochte was asked if Phelps had anything to say to him after the race.

“He came up to me and he congratulated me and he said ‘Way to go’ and ‘we haven’t lost the 400 IM for the USA in a long time, so way to keep it going,” Lochte said.

The first swimming world record of these Games came on the opening night in the women’s 400-meter individual medley.  China’s Ye Shiwen clocked 4:28.43 seconds to break the four-year-old mark (4:29.45) by about one second set at the last Olympics by Australian Stephanie Rice, who placed sixth Saturday.  American Elizabeth Beisel won the silver (4:31.27) and China’s Lu Xuanxu got the bronze (4:32.91).

China’s Sun Yang took the gold medal in the men’s 400-meter freestyle, and Australia earned gold in the women’s 4x100 meter freestyle relay, with the Netherlands getting silver and the USA bronze.

Earlier Saturday evening, the U.S. men’s archery team upset three-time defending champion South Korea in the semifinals (224-219).  But in a dramatic battle for the gold medal, Italy’s last archer⁶ scored a 10 when his arrow landed on the ring to give his nation a one-point victory, 219-218.

South Korea won the bronze in a shoot-off against Mexico.

1 medley   

n.混合

参考例句：

• Today's sports meeting doesn't seem to include medley relay swimming.现在的运动会好象还没有混合接力泳这个比赛项目。
• China won the Men's 200 metres Individual Medley.中国赢得了男子200米个人混合泳比赛。

2 margin   

n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘

参考例句：

• We allowed a margin of 20 minutes in catching the train.我们有20分钟的余地赶火车。
• The village is situated at the margin of a forest.村子位于森林的边缘。

3 qualified   

adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的

参考例句：

• He is qualified as a complete man of letters.他有资格当真正的文学家。
• We must note that we still lack qualified specialists.我们必须看到我们还缺乏有资质的专家。

4 frustrating   

adj.产生挫折的，使人沮丧的，令人泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的现在分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's frustrating to have to wait so long. 要等这么长时间，真令人懊恼。
• It was a demeaning and ultimately frustrating experience. 那是一次有失颜面并且令人沮丧至极的经历。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

6 archer   

n.射手，弓箭手

参考例句：

• The archer strung his bow and aimed an arrow at the target.弓箭手拉紧弓弦将箭瞄准靶子。
• The archer's shot was a perfect bull's-eye.射手的那一箭正中靶心。