Olympics, Day 3: Michael Phelps-Chad le Clos Rivalry Is Best Show on TV

You know a rivalry is great when NBC’s commentators don’t want the camera to move from the ready room, where strange head games are being played, back to the pool, where the real competition is taking place. Such was the case Monday night as South Africa’s Chad le Clos stood in front of a seated Michael Phelps ahead of their 200m butterfly semifinal and appeared to shadowbox to the music in his headphones. Phelps shot a death stare when le Clos wasn’t looking.

To quote NBC’s Dan Hicks, who gleefully enjoyed the show with Rowdy Gaines: “It’s like he’s growling like a dog. This is great television.”

Knowing le Clos was trying to get a rise out of him, Phelps regained his composure. The result: Le Clos just kept looking at Phelps, even as they stood on the pool deck awaiting their start. We’ve all heard it: The best way to turn the tables on a bully is to ignore him. So points to Phelps, who also declined to engage in a word battle in his postrace interview when NBC asked him about le Clos’s tactics. Phelps claimed he wasn’t bothered, that he’d just kept watching the semifinal before theirs on the TV in the ready room. But again…

The two will face off in the 200m fly final Tuesday night in primetime on NBC. Phelps is hoping to take back the title that he lost to le Clos in London in 2012. No one wants to miss this.

Related: Michael Phelps Will Have None of Your Cheap Intimidation Tactics

When Phelps retires (for real this time), at least we’ll still have the rivalry between the U.S.’s Lilly King and Russia’s Yulia Efimova, who was nastily booed during her introduction for the 100m breaststroke final. King took gold and also took another stand against doping, saying that her win was a statement “that we can still compete clean and do well at the Olympic Games. And that’s how it should be.”

Among the pool’s other noteworthy moments, the sixth straight gold in the men’s 100m backstroke for the United States. Even sweeter: hearing that former champs had sent letters of encouragement to Ryan Murphy and fellow American David Plummer, who earned bronze.

Kathleen Baker took silver in the women’s 100m backstroke. And bonus: A scuba diver found the pearl earring she’d lost in the pool during the semifinals. Did they have to call in someone special to do that, or does this kind of thing happen so often that someone is on standby?

Other broadcast highlights included forcing the volleyball stars to play at midnight Rio time again…

Though not everyone minded.

The night began with a rushed recap of the men’s 10m platform synchronized diving competition. We couldn’t even enjoy shots of Britain’s Tom Daley in the deck shower waiting for his scores — boo! But kudos to BuzzFeed for celebrating the racy placement of said scores.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment in primetime was that NBC didn’t get to play any of the men’s gymnastics team final until around 11:30 p.m. ET — and then it had to break and air the majority of it in late night, which means much of America missed it. It’s a shame. Yes, the U.S. finished fifth after rocky starts on floor and pommel horse and a heartbreaking final routine in the final rotation (see below). …

But in between, there were moments of greatness, both in stuck landings and in spirit. Watching the livestream earlier in the day, I got chills multiple times from seeing the fight still in them as they tried to battle back to the bronze.

To cheer us all up, here’s Usain Bolt enjoying a press conference.