LONDON — He was seventh at the turn.
Once again, just as in Beijing four years ago, Michael Phelps was seventh after 50 meters of the 100-meter butterfly.
Michael Phelps: 20 Olympic Medals
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For those who don’t understand the Michael Phelps way, this must be sheer agony to watch. It’s tough to watch even for those who understand it completely, like his mother, Debbie, her arms draped over the railing in the stands. The 100 fly is such a short race. To be seventh of eight halfway through, and with his Beijing arch-rival Milorad Cavic leading the race at the halfway mark– surely that is tempting fate, right?
Nah.
Phelps, again, poured it on in what swimmers call the back half of the race, storming home to win the 2012 Olympic 100 fly in 51.21 seconds.
The victory gave Phelps his second individual gold medal of these Games. It was his 21st career Olympic medal and 17th gold. It also provided him with his second Olympic three-peat; the day after he became the first male swimmer to win an event at three Games in a row, the 200-meter individual medley, he did it again with the 100 fly.
And yet there are those who question whether Phelps is the greatest Olympian of all time.
This 2012 Olympic swim meet ought to put the question to rest immediately.
Only Phelps and Rebecca Soni — in the women’s 200 breast — have been able to repeat as champions from Beijing.
With one day to go in the meet, there has been a new champion in every other event. Again, for emphasis — every other event.
That underscores just how unbelievably magnificent Phelps’ eight-for-eight triumph in Beijing really was.
He said late Friday, “Going through everything that I went through this week, feeling how I’ve felt, definitely shows that I was in the best shape of my life in 2008. For me to be able to that, everything had to fall into the right place at the right time. Everything had to be perfect. The results speak for themselves in 2008. Everything was perfect. Those eight days of competition ended up being in the right place at the right time in every race.”
More proof? Ryan Lochte swam six events in 2012, not eight. Lochte won five medals. Two of Lochte’s five are gold.
Phelps in 2012? Seven events. He, too has five — three gold, two silver — but still has one event left, the medley relay Saturday night, traditionally an American strength.
Barring a disaster, Phelps will win a medal in the medley; that will lift his overall career count to 22.
The question is not, what Olympic athlete effected the most social or political change?
It’s — who is the greatest Olympic athlete of all time?
The answer is definitively Michael Phelps, and with Friday night’s 100 fly, and that 21st medal, that 17th gold, he made it that much more resonant.
In this race in 2004, Phelps defeated Ian Crocker by five-hundredths of a second.
In 2008, he memorably defeated Cavic by one-hundredth.
Here — witness le Clos’ win the 200 fly as particular evidence of the proof that swimming has gotten so much deeper and stronger around the world — Phelps nonetheless won by 23-hundredths of a second, way more than the other two Olympic victories combined.
Le Clos and Russia’s Evgeny Korotyshkin tied for second in 51.44.
Cavic, swimming after back surgery, finished fourth, in 51.81.
The other American in the race, Tyler McGill, took seventh, in 51.88.
Phelps said, “I don’t even want to complain about going slower or having a bad turn or finish,” and if you were being technical or super-picky, the way he and longtime coach Bob Bowman are, you could indeed complain about all those things. Really, you could.
He said, “I’m not even going to say any of that. I’m just happy the last one was a win. That’s all — that’s all I really wanted coming into the night. This one was a bigger margin of victory than the last two combined. We should smile and be happy and yeah, i don’t know, it was fun.”
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