London Olympics: Best analyst for Tyler Clary gold-medal race: Clary

LONDON---As night raced toward dawn, Tyler Clary had not slept. He was still plenty excited from the gold medal he won Thursday night, and the tape-delayed NBC broadcast was about to air on the East Coast.

So Clary’s agent gave him an idea: Why not live-tweet the tape-delayed race?

“I could give them a little play-by-play on what I was doing, what I was thinking, how I was feeling,” said Clary, who won the men’s 200-meter backstroke. “It was cool to give them the scoop.”

And he did, via Twitter, about 3:30 a.m. London time.

As start time approaches: “I’m back in the ready room dancing and listening to a little dubstep, but right before I came out I switched on “The Motto” by Drake :)”

At the start: “Right now I am completely in the zone, I have never felt so relaxed and prepared to fly!!!”

As he trails U.S. teammate Ryan Lochte: “I see that I’m behind Ryan at the 100 but I am only thinking about building into the last 75.”

After he wins: “All I could think about after I saw that result was my high school coach Kevin Perry who passed away during my freshman year of college.”

Clary said he was amazed by how many people responded to his tweets.

Clary, who lives in Riverside and trains in Fullerton, expressed regret that he could not hold off until the tape-delayed broadcast hit the West Coast.

“I couldn’t stay up until 6:30,” he said.

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