Phelps’ third world record making world championships unique event
MELBOURNE, Australia — Six weeks ago, Michael Phelps showed up in Columbia for the Missouri Grand Prix at the Mizzou Aquatic Center, sporting a goatee and unkempt hair that barely fit under his skincap.
Then, he went out and set a world record.
“Right then and there, I thought something special could happen this year,” Phelps said Thursday.
He was on the mark. Phelps set his third world record in many days Thursday at the World Swimming Championships, wiping out the field in the 200-meter individual medley at Rod Laver Arena.
Phelps finished in 1 minute, 54.98 seconds, easily bettering his own mark of 1:55.84 set last August at the Pan Pacific championships. Just as he did in the other record-breaking swims, he jumped out to a quick lead and snuffed out all hope for those who dove in the pool with him.
“Why stop something that works?” Phelps said.
The 21-year-old phenomenon, or “mutant,” as teammate Tara Kirk referred to him, is still on course to go eight-for-eight at these championships, reaching the midway point of his grueling schedule with four golds to his name.
“There is nobody out there like him,” said Jon Urbanchek, the longtime American coach. “Right now, Michael stands by himself.”
Tiger Woods surely comes to mind. Or maybe Roger Federer.
“He’s more like Michael Jordan,” Urbanchek said. “He’s way out there.”
Phelps’ personal coach, Bob Bowman, began to sense last month that his star pupil was on the verge of a landmark accomplishment.
At the Missouri Grand Prix, he said Phelps was “not in a really strong racing state” for
the 200 fly. This was a warmup, pure and simple, a chance to hone some techniques for Melbourne. He didn’t even bother shaving down in true swimmer fashion.
And still, he broke his own world record.
“That was unexpected. That wasn’t part of the script,” Urbanchek said. “When he put that swim in, everyone knew the big one was coming here.”
Phelps led off the American gold-medal winning 400 free relay team with a time that would have been good enough to win individually in the 100 free Thursday.
Then he took down Ian Thorpe’s six-year-old record in the 200 free, becoming the first swimmer in history to break 1:44.
Then he shattered the 200 fly record by a staggering 1.62 seconds, the biggest margin in 48 years.
Then he wiped out his own mark in the 200 individual medley by 0.86 seconds, another staggering margin in a sport that’s usually measured in the hundredths.
“Michael is just out of reach,” said Laszlo Cseh of Hungary, who took bronze in the latest race.
On Friday, Phelps will return to the pool for preliminaries in the only race that seems to hold any chance of tripping up his eight-wins-in-eight-days plan. Fellow American Ian Crocker holds the world record in the 100 fly with an astonishing time of 50.40 at the most recent world championships in Montreal.
In fact, Crocker is the only swimmer in history to break 51 seconds, doing it three times in all. Phelps briefly held the world record during the 2003 worlds in Barcelona at 51.10, but he hasn’t been able to beat that mark in the past four years.
Phelps did edge an ailing Crocker by four-hundredths of a second to win gold at the Athens Olympics. And the way things are going in Melbourne, anything seems possible.
“On Ian’s best day, he’s very, very hard to beat,” Aaron Peirsol, another American star, said. “Yeah, Michael is getting faster. But no one is faster than Ian. Mike comes home well. So can Ian. It’s going to be a good race. I know they are looking forward to it, both of them. Nobody is giving it to anybody yet.”
Crocker might still be considered the favorite, though.
“I’m excited to get in the water and race Ian,” Phelps said. “I’ve shown that I have more speed now than I’ve really ever had. Hopefully, this is the time where he doesn’t beat me by a body length in the 100. Time will tell, but I’m definitely feeling strong in the water.”