Phelps maintains world-record pace at World Swimming Championships
MELBOURNE, Australia — The red line lapped at Michael Phelps’ feet, as if pushing him to another world record.
A superimposed TV gizmo that demonstrates just how close swimmers are to record pace, the red line was actually moving along behind Phelps as he approached the wall.
He wasn’t chasing the mark. It was chasing him.
“That was amazing,” Phelps’ coach, Bob Bowman said.
At this point, Phelps is just racing himself and the records he already holds. On Wednesday at the World Swimming Championships, he set his second world mark in as many days and showed no signs of slowing down with five more races to go.
“That’s basically what he always does,” Bowman said. “That’s how you improve the best.”
Can this be right? Phelps swam the 200-meter butterfly in 1 minute, 52.09 seconds. In a sport where records are documented in hundredths of a second, Phelps broke his own record by a staggering 1.62 seconds, the biggest drop in the record since 1959.
For those who thought the lanky American was at his peak during the 2003 worlds in Barcelona or the next year for the Athens Olympics, think again. He’s better than ever, at age 21.
Phelps shattered the record he set just six weeks ago at the Missouri Grand Prix in Columbia. With the crowd at Rod Laver Arena rooting him on, he surged to the wall nearly two body lengths ahead of anyone else.
Whirling around and flipping up his goggles to get a better look at the scoreboard, Phelps squinted his eyes when the time flashed.
“I shocked myself,” Phelps said. “I heard the crowd the last 50 (meters). I didn’t know how close I was or how far I was under it. You could tell by the expression on my face. I was shocked.”
In the stands, Bowman had a similar reaction.
Phelps’ coach was keeping up with the split times, fully aware he was well below the pace of his previous record-breaking swim. But Bowman didn’t truly grasp just how fast his star pupil was going until he glanced at the video board on the final lap.
The red line told it all.
“That was,” Bowman said, struggling to find the right word, “interesting.”
For Phelps, it seems like he’s a kid again, breaking personal bests, a.k.a. world records, in seconds, not fractions of a second.
“I feel like I’m 12 years old, being able to drop more that a second off my best time,” he said. “I feel like an age-group swimmer again.”
Just one day earlier, Phelps took down a swimming icon by beating Ian Thorpe’s 6-year-old record in the 200 free, in Thorpey’s home country, no less. After celebrating with a couple of sleeping pills, he was back at the pool early Wednesday for a preliminary swim in the 200 individual medley.
When he returned in the evening for the 200 butterfly final, he didn’t feel right.
“I actually felt like crap,” Phelps said. “I felt horrible in the warmup pool. I said to Bob, ‘I can still feel my arms from last night.’”
When it counted, Phelps blew everyone away, beating silver medalist Wu Peng of China by 3.04 seconds, an eternity in swimming terms.
“He is simply way too fast, way too fast,” Wu said through a translator. “I couldn’t see him.”
Phelps was under world-record pace the entire race and extended his lead at every turn. At 100 meters, he dipped 1.65 seconds under his old mark. He stretched it to 1.78 seconds through 150 meters as the Aussie fans cheered louder and louder.
“He’s incredible,” American teammate Katie Hoff marveled. “He’s just really in his prime right now. I think everyone thought it was at the Olympics or before that. But going to college and stuff, he’s just doing some amazing things.”