Krayzelburg Is Back, but Peirsol Better

Aaron Peirsol and Lenny Krayzelburg tried not to, but they couldn’t help but smile at each other as they approached the starting blocks for the 200-meter backstroke final in the Janet Evans Invitational swim meet Friday at USC.

There they stood: two old rivals, stone-faced, looking toward the pool deck, shaking their arms. Then, almost by instinct, each slowly turned his head toward the other. Their eyes met and, since it was a once-familiar sight neither had seen in a while, each cracked a grin.

“Just like old times,” Peirsol said.

Well, not exactly.

This time, Peirsol won. He swam the race in 1:59.09 and edged Krayzelburg by 0.24 seconds. The last time the world’s premier 200 backstrokers met was at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney and Krayzelburg edged Peirsol to win the gold medal. Krayzelburg took time away from competition, then had surgery on his left shoulder last August. The rivalry went on hiatus until Friday’s highly anticipated renewal.

In the interim, Peirsol broke Krayzelburg’s world record in the event, winning in 1:55.15 at the U.S. Spring Nationals in March to better the 1:55.87 Krayzelburg swam in 1999. Neither expected the times to be quite as fast as they were Friday, but both acknowledged the competitive juices took over.

“You could tell we both wanted to win real bad,” Peirsol said. “This race was a big deal, but not in the sense that we were going for a world record. Just the return of Lenny was big.”

Krayzelburg said he didn’t think much about facing Peirsol before the race. He was more concerned that he hadn’t clocked better than 2:03 in the 200 since his surgery. Friday was supposed to be a test for his shoulder, a race to determine if he should stick with the 200 or leave it to focus on the 100. One glance at Peirsol changed that.

“He brings out the best in me,” said Krayzelburg. “I think it’s going to be quite an exciting rivalry in the next few years. I guess I proved to myself that I’m not ready to go away yet. Today changed my views about the 200.”

Peirsol, who led start to finish, applauded Krayzelburg’s decision. He said he needed his old rival back to keep himself motivated.

“The race has been a little different without him,” said Peirsol, who last beat Krayzelburg in 2000, also at this meet. “I really flourished in his absence, but it’s going to be that much more of a challenge with him back. I missed him and I think the sport missed him.”

Next up for the two will be the Summer Nationals next month in Florida. Peirsol, asked for a prediction about that race, would say only, “There’s going to be some fast swimming going on there.”

Also Friday, Jason Lezak of Irvine swam a meet-record 49.84 in winning the men’s 100 freestyle. World-record holder Michael Phelps, 17, won the 200 butterfly in 1:56.51. Lindsay Benko won the women’s 100 freestyle in 55.59 and the 400 freestyle in 4:10.60