Phelps beat Cavic in the 'touch seen'

Phelps beat Cavic in the 'touch seen 'round the world' and they go at again Friday.

Michael Phelps swims the last individual event of his incomparable career Friday night. Among those he will face in the 100-meter butterfly is the man who dared to try and draw a mustache on Phelps' Mona Lisa performance in Beijing, Milorad Cavic.

You remember that race. Phelps, going for the seventh of his record eight gold medals, desperately churning from behind. Cavic, having brazenly stared down Phelps before the start, tenaciously holding on to what looked like one of the greatest upsets in Olympic history.

Only it wasn't. The scoreboard told a truth that the naked eye could not discern: In the final stroke of the race, Phelps somehow hit the wall first (or hardest) to beat Cavic by a single one-hundredth of a second.

If Phelps' great eight golds was the finest achievement in Olympic history, this was the most memorable of those races.

Hoping for a second act that comes close to the first is a bit much to ask. But Cavic, seeded fourth this Games to Phelps' first and doing considerably less talking than in China four years ago, will give it a shot.

"I'm four years older, have a lot less hair on my head and have a back operation behind me," Cavic told Yahoo! Sports. "I'm pretty lucky to be here. But I'm ready to do my best, and if I win a medal I think I'll be the first-ever guy to win a medal after a back operation."

After enduring back pain so severe that he couldn't tie his own shoes or dry off his lower legs after swimming, Cavic had surgery on a herniated disc in 2010. After being out a year, he was a shell of his former self at the 2011 world championships in Shanghai. But he reunited with his old coach at California, Mike Bottom, who is now at Michigan, and began putting the pieces back together in 2012.


In the European championships in the spring, Cavic swam a 51.45-second 100 butterfly that signaled his return to contender status. He turned in a 51.66 in the semifinals of the event here in London, and may just be saving up for a shot at the king in the final.

But with Phelps burning a 50.82 leg in the semis, followed by South African 200-meter winner Chad le Clos (51.42) and American Tyler McGill (51.61), the sprinty Cavic will have to find some staying power.

It's almost certain that Cavic will be first at the 50-meter turn, perhaps with McGill closest to him. From there you can expect Phelps to turn in a patented back-half rush along with le Clos, who is more suited to the 200 fly than the 100.

Phelps looked impossible to beat in the semifinals on Thursday night, but he remembers how close he came to losing to Cavic four years ago in this event.

"Hopefully I'm not as far behind this time."

Michael Phelps’s last individual swim of his incomparable career was fittingly golden. Phelps rallied from seventh in the final 50 meters to win the 100 butterfly in a time of 51.21 seconds.

In the process, Phelps further put his Olympics body of work out of reach for those who will follow him. It was his record 21st Olympic medal, his record 17th gold medal, and his third straight gold in the 100 fly. On Thursday night in the 200 individual medley, Phelps became the first swimmer ever to win the same individual event in three consecutive Olympic Games. Now he has a double three-peat.

But as usual in this event, it didn’t come easy. Phelps beat South African Chad le Clos and Russian Evgeny Korotyshkin by 0.23 seconds, with those two tying for second.

"I don't even want to complain about going slower [than in the semifinals] or having a bad turn or bad finish," said Phelps. "I just wanted this one to be a win. We can smile and be happy. It was fun."

In Athens in 2004, Phelps edged out American teammate Ian Crocker by 0.04. In Beijing in 2008, he nipped Serbia’s Milorad Cavic by 0.01 – a photo finish to what is probably Phelps’s most famous race.

This was not that close.

Cavic was in the final field of eight again this time. But since coming off back surgery in 2010 he has not been able to regain the speed he had in leading Phelps until an inch from the wall in Beijing. Cavic finished fourth Friday night.

The London Games are Phelps’s swan song, and after a stunning fourth-place finish in his first event, he has regrouped and given himself a proper sendoff. Phelps has three gold medals and two silver and will be part of a prohibitively favored American 400 medley relay Saturday. Unless something goes horribly wrong in that event, it will mark the sixth time an American has won six medals in a single Olympic swim meet – half of them by Phelps. The others are Mark Spitz in 1972, Matt Biondi in 1988, and Natalie Coughlin in 2008.

Phelps’s victory continued a dominant meet for American swimmers. With 13 gold medals through the 100 fly Friday night – including the overpowering victory by 17-year-old Missy Franklin in the 200 backstroke right before Phelps’s win – the Americans are on pace to win their most swimming golds in a non-boycotted Games since 1972, when they won 17. And that number is not out of reach either before the meet ends Saturday night.

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Congratulations Michael Phelps