Michael Phelps drops 200m freestyle, will compete in seven Olympic events

Michael Phelps won’t be tying his 2008 Olympic record after all.

On Monday, U.S. Olympic swimming coach Bob Bowman announced via Twitter that Phelps would not participate in the individual 200m freestyle in London.

@MichaelPhelps will be removing the individual 200 freestyle from his Olympic program. This will give him a full slate of 7 events.

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Bob Bowman (@coach_bowman) July 02, 2012

This change will allow him to focus more energy on relays for Team USA. I will be in the mixed zone at 11:45 to answer any media questions.

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Bob Bowman (@coach_bowman) July 02, 2012

Phelps was set to face Ryan Lochte in the 200m freestyle in London after beating Lochte in the finals of the event by five-hundredths of a second last week.

At the 2008 Beijing games, Phelps set a world record in the event with a time of 1.42.96, besting the previous world record — which he held — by nearly a full second en route to winning a record eight gold medals.