Ryan Lochte will return to the Olympics this year to compete in his favorite event…

The 31-year-old half-Cuban American swimmer matched Michael Phelps stroke for stroke in the 200-meter individual medley at the U.S. Olympic swimming trials on Friday night, both surging to the wall in almost perfect sync.

Phelps got there first, just ahead of Lochte, the guy who has pushed him hard for more than a decade.

It was the latest epic of their longtime rivalry — and billed as the last showdown in their home country before the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio.

“Ryan and I always have a great race with one another,” said Phelps, who plans to retire again after his fifth Olympics. “When we race each other, we bring each other to a different level.”

Phelps led from start to finish, but Lochte was right with him all the way. In fact, Lochte seemed to pull even midway through the final lap, but Phelps, the most decorated athlete in Olympic history, managed to get to the wall in 1 minute, 55.91 seconds.

Lochte was next at 1:56.22 and had no complaints about the consolation prize: his only individual race at the Olympics.

“I knew going into this race it was definitely going to be a dogfight to the end,” Lochte said. “It’s been a long journey, but the journey’s not over. We still have another month to get ready and show the world that the U.S. is number one.”

Lochte, an 11-time medalist, injured his groin on the first day of the meet, struggled in his next few races and was down to his final chance to get a swim of his own at the Summer Games.

Now, that’s out of the way, which means Phelps and Lochte will get another crack at each other in South America.

As a three-time defending gold medalist in the 200 IM, Phelps will be the favorite. But he knows Lochte won’t be far behind, especially with a month to recover from the groin issue.

“I don’t know of another person in this world who brings out the best in me like he does,” said Phelps, who has 18 golds and 22 medals overall. “Neither one of us likes to lose.”