Rookie error costs Peirsol

Sometimes, even veterans make rookie mistakes. Aaron Peirsol is one the greatest swimmers of his generation, arguably the greatest backstroker of all time. But at the swimming world championships on Monday, Peirsol made a bad error in judgment that cost him a spot in the final of the 100-meter backstroke that could have earned him a spot in history Tuesday.

Peirsol eased his way through the semifinal heat, as he sometimes does at major competitions, to save some energy for the final. That usually isn't a problem for the seven-time Olympic medalist, who was going for his record-tying fourth straight world title in the same individual event. Only this time, Peirsol glided in at 53.22 seconds -- notably, a time that was faster than the world record 53.45 he swam on the first leg of the medley relay at the Athens Olympics in 2004. But in today's age of fast suits and fast times, it was only good enough for ninth place among the 16 semifinalists, one off the Tuesday final group of eight.

"I thought I was going faster," Peirsol said. "I am very disappointed. I completely misjudged my race. I have to go on, pick myself up and focus on my next events."

This doesn't mean Peirsol's lost his touch. He lowered the world record to 51.94 at the U.S. trials in Indianapolis on July 8 and could have gone nearly as fast on Monday. "I thought I was in a much better place than I was," Peirsol added. "In backstroke, you don't see much; you go by feel."

Give Peirsol credit for being the stand-up, no-excuse guy he has always been, and compare that attitude to Serbia's Milorad Cavic, who won the non-Olympic 50-butterfly race Monday, touching in 22.67 seconds. His post-race press conference was sadly more noteworthy than the race itself.

Cavic continues to cling to the absurdity that he touched the wall ahead of Michael Phelps in the final of the 100-meter freestyle at the Beijing Olympics, despite photo evidence to the contrary. Instead Cavic blames a faulty timing system on the result that left him one one-hundredth of a second behind Phelps in second place.

"I did touch the wall first," Cavic insisted. "Omega didn't record it that way ... Having that race saved my career. I would have stopped swimming if I had won that race. I'm an animal of emotion. Because of what happened, I did return to swimming with a desire I would not have had had I won the gold medal."

It's a shame. Check out the definitive underwater photo from SI's Heinz Kluetmeier (right), and the image clearly shows Phelps' hand being bent well back by the wall, as Cavic's is just getting to it. That's irrefutable proof, something Cavic must be pretending not to see. Case closed. Yes, Cavic may be trying to fire himself up, but the fantasy cling is obscuring his good performances.

On to the most surprisingly underwhelming news of the night: the number of records broken so far. There were five of them Monday night, but after swimmers set six of them on Sunday, it almost seems like an afterthought to talk about records.

Still, the story of Ariana Kukors seems like the ultimate act of redemption. Kukors had placed only third at the U.S. trials in Indianapolis in the 200 individual medley, which meant, in theory, that she wouldn't swim the race here in Rome. Kukors' time of 2:11.07 in Indy left her almost two seconds off Julia Smit's 2:09.34 that won the race, but barely behind Elizabeth Pelton's 2:11.03 in second. Luckily for Kukors, Pelton had a conflict with another event on the slightly different schedule in Rome, so she decided to scratch from the IM and leave that place to Kukors.