(Photo credit: Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
Phelps was trailing in seventh place at the 50-meter mark and out-touched runner-up Milorad Cavic, a California-born Serb, with his last stroke to win by 0.01 second in a time of 50.58 seconds, setting an Olympic record. This was Phelps's closest individual race yet in this Olympics. Cavic appeared to make a mistake right at the end, gliding after the last stroke instead of swimming all the way to the wall, and enabled Phelps to touch first. What a thrilling victory it was!!! Everybody thought that Phelps finished second. This is just another proof that he has become the greatest athlete in human history.
(Photo credit: Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
(Photo credit: Michael Kappeler/AFP/Getty Images)
(Photo credit: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
Australia's Andrew Lauterstein capped a great series of swims in the heats and semifinals to win the bronze medal in 51.12.
World record holder Ian Crocker of USA, who has been breathing down Phelps' neck this year with some threatening times, only arrived in fourth place with a time of 51.13, a hundredth of a second behind the bronze.
(Photo credit: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
After the finish, both swimmers spun around, removed their goggles and looked at the video screen to find out their fates. In the moment it took the scoreboard to unscramble the numbers, the tension inside the National Aquatics Center was palpable.
In the two-lap event, Phelps came upon the deck as the defending Olympic champion. But his gold medal was at stake when he touched wall the seventh in the first 50 meters, about half a body length behind Cavic. Phelps splashed ahead in the second 50 meters and finally outstroked Cavic amid jittery cheers of the spectators.
After the race, the Serbian team protested the results, suggesting that the Serbian swimmer touched the wall first, but was later rejected. According to FINA, the sport's governing body, Serbian swimming officials filed an official written protest of the results after the race. FINA's executive director, Cornel Marculescu, said the video footage was then reviewed by the referee, who rejected the appeal after determining that Phelps had indeed won. Marculescu said the Serbian team was then given the chance to watch the video themselves and did not choose to take their protest to the second and final level by seeking recourse from a jury of appeal.
Cavic, a California-Berkeley graduate who briefly retired after the 2004 Olympics because he no longer believed he was good enough to challenge the world's best, described it as "the most devastating loss you can have at the Olympics."
Phelps seemed exhausted even before today's race, trudging to the blocks, shaking his arms more than normal, searching for his strength. Afterward, when his excitement died, his face winced in pain, and his tentative steps revealed his aches.
And maybe when Phelps realizes he received a $1-million bonus from Speedo for tying Spitz, that should help ease some of his pain.
Phelps's Quotes:
"Beforehand, Bob (his coach) said it would be good for me if I lost. When he said that I was fired up. I said, 'I'm going to go for it'," Phelps told reporters.
"When I saw the replay, when I did take that extra half stroke I thought that had lost the race.
"But I guess when I took that half stroke that was what I needed. I'm at a loss for words," he added.
"It's the smallest margin of victory in our sport," Phelps said later. "It was pretty cool."
"I think it really shows that no matter what you set your imagination to, anything can happen," Phelps said. "Some people said it would be impossible to duplicate and that it wouldn't happen. It shows really that anything can happen."
"I am in a sort of dream world. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to make sure it is real. I am happy I am in the real world," he said.
Already looking ahead, Phelps said his ultimate goal is to change the sport of swimming in a way. "I just got a picture from my friend from the sports center live, they aired the race. They had it live on a 'Jumbotron' in the middle of a baseball game. So my goal is starting to happen, but I have a long way to go with that," he said.
"I am sure Bob and I can think of some more goals in the next four years," he said.
The 23-year-old Phelps could break Spitz's record set at the 1972 Olympics if the U.S. wins tomorrow's 400-medley relay, an event the U.S. has won at every Olympics in which it competed since the relay was added in 1960.
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