Water came close to sinking Michael Phelps’ bid for eight gold medals at a single Olympics. And in the bigger picture it nearly delayed his grasp on what turned out to be a record 11 Olympic gold medals overall.
If that sounds strange, you try swimming a grueling 200-meter butterfly with water filling your goggles and getting worse by the second.
He couldn’t see anything for about the last 100 meters, but he did get his hand on the gold medal in that event, in a world-record 1 minute 52.03 seconds. He added a triumph in the 4×200 freestyle relay in 6:58.56 (another world record) to reach five gold medals at these Olympics. Add that to his six from Athens and he hit a historic No. 11, the all-time highest for any Olympian.
Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Ricky Berens and Peter Vanderkaay led the entire race. That bettered the old mark of 7:03.24 set by the U.S. at last year’s world championships in Australia.
Russia took the silver in 7:03.70. Australia earned the bronze in 7:04.98.
“We kind of had a pretty good idea we could break seven minutes,” Phelps said after the relay. “And it definitely feels good to be the first group, first country to dip under the seven-minute barrier.”
Of his record gold-medal collection, Phelps said, “When I was on the awards ceremony for the 200 fly, I started thinking about it, and that’s when I started tearing up. … To be at the top with so many great athletes who have walked in these Olympic Games is a pretty amazing feeling.”
Simply dazzling: Five events, five world records.
It never was going to be easy, of course. The route to history and the approach to Mark Spitz’s record seven gold medals in one Olympics took a bizarre twist Wednesday at the Water Cube.
A new story line: The Perils of Phelps.
Unlike Tuesday’s final in the 200 freestyle, Phelps was pushed early in the 200 fly, and from an unexpected source, Moss Burmester of New Zealand in Lane 1, well away from Phelps’ Lane 4
Burmester went out fast and led after the first 50 meters. At 100, Phelps was first, at 53.53 to Burmester’s 53.56. Then even more trouble unfolded.
“I couldn’t see anything for the last 100, my goggles were pretty much filling up with water,” Phelps said. “It kept getting worse and worse through the race. To be honest, I was having trouble seeing the walls.”
Lots of folks have had problems peering into the distance, but this had nothing to do with bad air quality. Phelps tossed his cap and goggles onto the pool deck, looking less than thrilled.
He lowered his own world mark, which had been 1:52.09, set at the World Championships in Melbourne. Laszlo Cseh of Hungary was second, in 1:52.70.
“But it’s fine. I wanted to break the record,” Phelps said.
“I wanted to go 1:51 or better, but for the circumstance, I guess it’s not too bad.”
Still ahead for Phelps are the 200 individual medley, 100 fly and 400 medley relay.
“There is still something left in the tank,” Phelps said. “I’ve got three races left, so there had better be something left in the tank.”
