Japan’s Kitajima shows up at U.S. Olympic trials to watch American rival

Swimming's fiercest rivalry took center stage Tuesday night at the U.S. Olympic trials. And Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte swam too.

Taking a move out of Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard's playbook, the world's best breaststroker, Japan's Kosuke Kitajima, showed up to watch his rival, Brendan Hansen, compete in a dress rehearsal before their main event later this summer in London. As Kitajima sat in the upper deck, Hansen easily won the 100-meter breaststroke to set up a third Olympic meeting with the Japanese star.

Kitajima swept the first two meetings in both distances in Athens and Beijing, celebrating a win in Greece by pounding the water with his fists and letting out a guttural scream. Hansen has said he kept motivated over the past eight years by making Kitajima's scream his alarm clock tone. The American appeared to give a sarcastic laugh when he saw Kitajima featured on a video screen before the race.

When asked by NBC what he thought his rival would takeaway from his visit to trials, Hansen said it may teach him a lesson. "[Now] he knows how hard it is to make the U.S. Olympic team," Hansen told Andrea Kremer.

In case there was any confusion about which breaststroker has four individual gold medals, Kitajima cleared it up by wearing a baseball cap that appeared to have a sequined No. 1 made out of swimming lanes.