World beater

Swimmer Michael Phelps put on a spectacular show in Spain

BARCELONA -- Since we're in Spain, we could safely label Michael Phelps' performance at the FINA World Championships this past week as simply gaudy or Gaudí (as in Antonio, the renowned architect). You could forgive the high school grad for being giddy, too, about his six medals (four gold) and five world records, except that Phelps is too easily fueled by perceived failures. In the 100-meter butterfly final on Saturday, he lowered his own world record by three-tenths of a second, down to 51.10, but watched his teammate, Ian Crocker, scoot by him at the wall. That race, and not the other triumphs, will be Phelps' lasting memory from these championships. That drive is what makes him so good.

Friday night's swims were among the most sensational in history. At 6:51 p.m., Andrii Serdinov of Ukraine won the first semifinal heat of the 100-meter butterfly in 51.76 seconds, .05 under the world record set by Australia's Michael Klim in 1999. Serdinov then moved to the cooldown area, where he conducted a quick interview with a Eurosport reporter who at 6:56 asked Serdinov, "So how does it feel to make history?" Before the Ukrainian could answer, he watched the second semi on an overhead monitor as Phelps touched the wall in 51.47 seconds. The feeling and record were gone in five minutes. Serdinov fled the area.

Phelps had followed the call to patience by his coach, Bob Bowman, to a tee. Incredibly, Phelps' time at the 50-meter turn, 25.11 seconds, was the slowest of all 16 semifinalists. His closing 50, in which he pulled far away from the field, was only an appetizer. "I knew Michael could come back physically with another great swim," Bowman said, "but there is a lot of emotion involved with setting a world record. He had to come down from that and be hungry again awfully fast."

Bowman need not have worried. Just 46 minutes later, Australian superstar Ian Thorpe and Phelps stepped on the blocks together for the first time ever in a finals race. The 200-meter individual medley is an event ideally suited for Phelps' multifaceted virtuosity. At Indianapolis in April, he won U.S. titles in freestyle, butterfly and backstroke events, something no swimmer had done before. Thorpe is still the best freestyler around -- he captured golds in three races in Barcelona -- but Bowman let forth a hearty chuckle early in the week when he was asked if it was unfair that Thorpe's first meeting with Phelps should come in a medley race. "That's the first time I've ever heard it was unfair for Ian to be at a competitive disadvantage," Bowman said.

If Phelps had donned a weighted wetsuit, that might have leveled the odds. He built his lead with every stroke, finishing in 1:56.04, lowering his own world best and beating Thorpe, who finised 3.62 seconds behindhim, by nearly two bodylengths. With that swim, Phelps became the only man in history to break world records in two different events on the same day, and the first to break four world records at a world championship (he later broke a fifth, in the 400-meter individual medley).

At the medalists' press conference, no tension was evident between Thorpe and Phelps, as they scribbled notes to each other while they waited for the Spanish translations of their answers. At one point, Italy's Massi Rosolino, the bronze medalist, said he was planning to buy the Eminem CD Phelps listens to as he walks onto the pool deck before each race.

Phelps has yet to match Thorpe's savvy out of the pool. As the conference broke up, Thorpe crumpled and pocketed his sheet of paper. Phelps left his behind, and the race to the dais among journalists was on. A writer for a German daily snatched the document and fended through the scribbles, enough to make out the words: "It's not about the CD player."

Thompson is still going strong

Jenny Thompson isn't an especially fidgety shopper, but as the 30-year-old veteran of the U.S. team waited in the long lines at a Zara boutique in downtown Barcelona, she stretched her quads, bent her knees and hopped about with great purpose and meaning. Thompson needed fresh legs, after all, since her first race was just 16 hours away. Thompson's purchase was meaningful, too: a lucky red dress for her mother, Margrid, who in the spring of 2001 was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. "My mom is my source of inspiration," Thompson said. "Every race I draw strength from her."

The inspiration is mutual for Margrid, who watched from the stands, wearing her day-old dress as Thompson won a gold medal in the 100-meter butterfly and later anchored the 4x100-meter freestyle relay team to victory, rallying the quartet from third place when she entered the pool.

By the end of the week, Thompson had won five more medals, boosting her career total over four world championships to 14, the most of any swimmer in history. "Seeing Jenny has really helped me fight the depression," said Margrid, who barely speaks above a whisper and will not discuss her prognosis. Thompson's recent medal haul is all the more remarkable, considering that she retired from competive swimming after the Sydney Olympics and enrolled in Columbia University's medical school.

Thompson points to two events that drew her back into the pool: her mother's diagnosis and the day she watched, from her apartment on the 14th floor of a building in Upper Manhattan, as the World Trade Center towers collapsed. "I felt like a helpless person," she said. "I wanted to contribute something and make sure I hadn't missed an opportunity."

In December 2001 Thompson jumped into the 15-meter pool in the basement of her building and soon recaptured her urge to swim. Her studies have limited her to a single daily training session of 4,500 meters over 90 minutes rather than the two-a-days that used to fuel her. She will leave school in December to train for the Athens Olympics before returning for her residency.

Earlier this year, Margrid came down from her home in Dover, N.H., for a visit and attended Jenny's classes with her for a week. "It's ridiculous to get stressed out about swimming the way I used to," said Thompson, who has eight Olympic golds, the most of any female swimmer in history, but has also taken some unfair heat for not winning any in individual races. "I'm grateful for every moment."

Sports Illustrated staff writer Brian Cazeneuve covers Olympic sports for the magazine and is a regular contributor to SI.com.

 

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