Hungary's Katinka Hosszu pulled out of the 200 metres Olympic butterfly heats to save her energies for the 200m individual medley that could bring her a third gold of the Games on Tuesday.
“She skipped the butterfly to have spare energy for the 200 IM,” Hungarian Swimming Federation attache Gergely Csurka told Reuters.
The butterfly is not one of the 27-year-old's favourites but the 'Iron Lady' was a top contender for Tuesday's 200m IM final.
Hosszu won Monday's 100m backstroke to add to the 400m individual medley gold she took in world-record time on Saturday.
She can still win four golds, with the 200m backstroke yet to come on Thursday.
Csurka said the swimmer had not returned to her room in the village until 3:30am on Monday and had left the venue at around 1am on Tuesday after her latest endeavours.
The late timings of the swimming finals, scheduled for prime time U.S. audiences, have forced swimmers to change their preparations. Csurka said the timings presented challenges for swimmers looking for a decent night's sleep, since the noise levels in the village picked up at around 7am.
“It's not about the race times, but the press conferences and doping control goes late. If you've had a big race, it's not easy to go right to sleep either,” he said.
Michael Phelps, a 19-times gold medallist after winning the men's 4x100m freestyle relay on Sunday, encountered similar problems on Monday.
“I guess I got to sleep at 3am and I was on an 11am bus. Quick turnarounds,” he said on Monday after the 200m butterfly heats.
The U.S. great will be chasing his 24th career medal later on Tuesday in the butterfly finals.
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