With World Records Falling, No Leeway for Phelps

小臭贝

ROME — Michael Phelps was answering a question Monday night when the roar of the crowd at the Foro Italico drowned out his voice. Phelps turned to the television screen that was showing the second semifinal of the men’s 200-meter freestyle at the world championships and a cloud scudded across his face. His expression darkened.

Paul Biedermann, the German who broke the world record held by Ian Thorpe in the 400 freestyle on Sunday, had eclipsed Phelps’s two-year-old meet record in the 200, with a time of 1 minute 43.65 seconds. Biedermann and the second-place finisher, Danila Izotov of Russia, each swam faster than Phelps had in the first heat, which he won in 1:45.23.

“What’d he go?” Phelps asked.

A German reporter relayed Biedermann’s time.

“A 1:43?” Phelps asked.

His jaw tightened. In the 200 freestyle final at the Beijing Olympics last year, Phelps lowered his world record to 1:42.96; Biedermann finished fifth in 1:46.00. “He’s dropped a lot of time,” Phelps said edgily. “He’s having a good meet, a good year. Tomorrow’s going to be a good race.”

With that, Phelps left, but this question lingered: Could Phelps lose in Tuesday’s final?

“Yeah,” his coach, Bob Bowman, said. “He could always lose. I’ve seen Michael lose.”

Not on this stage, and certainly not since 2007. But the first two days of this competition have proved that no world record is safe, nor is any world record-holder.

“If Michael’s at his best, he’ll probably win,” Bowman said. “But he has to be at his best. There’s no leeway.”

Phelps, 24, is a 14-time Olympic champion and the successor to Mark Spitz. But he is wearing Speedo’s LZR Racer, which some people say is the swimming equivalent of a jockey racing with extra weight.

Since it was introduced last year, the suit has been superseded by the rubberized models of other manufacturers like Arena, which sponsors Biedermann. These polyurethane suits have the power of Superman’s cape, giving those who wear them the confidence to soar.

“If we walk out there tomorrow with Biedermann in a brief and Michael in a brief, what do you think is going to happen?” Bowman said. He shrugged. “We don’t know. Maybe Biedermann will beat him. But a year ago, he wouldn’t have, right?”

A year ago, it would have been hard to imagine the American Aaron Peirsol failing to advance to the final in the 100 backstroke, an event in which he has held the world record for all but one week since 2004.

Peirsol, who became the first to swim the event in under 52 seconds this month at the United States championships, finished fourth in his semifinal in 53.22.

“It’s my own fault,” Peirsol said, adding, “I completely misjudged my race. I just completely thought I was in a place that I wasn’t in.”

Stephanie Rice of Australia could be forgiven for wondering if she missed the pool on her dive and instead found Alice’s rabbit hole. Rice put together a marvelous swim in the final of the 200 individual medley, bettering her winning time from Beijing by more than a second. But she was soundly beaten by Ariana Kukors of the United States, who was not on the 2008 Olympic team.

Kukors’s win in 2:06.15 improved on her day-old world record of 2:07.03, which had bettered Rice’s year-old mark of 2:08.45. That is 11 world records in 16 events.

Four others were broken Monday: Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden in the final of the 100 butterfly (56.06), the American Rebecca Soni in the semifinals of the 100 breaststroke (1:04.84), Anastasia Zueva of Russia in the semifinals of the 100 backstroke (58.48) and Brenton Rickard of Australia in the final of the men’s 100 breaststroke (58.58).

How topsy-turvy are the times? Hugues Duboscq of France swam the 100 breast faster than the record that Rickard surpassed in finishing second. Dana Vollmer lowered the United States record in the 100 butterfly with a 56.94, becoming the first American woman under 57 seconds, and tied for fifth. Sjostrom, who did not break 59 seconds in Beijing, nearly broke 56 seconds here, coming from seventh at the turn to win.

Kukors did not even qualify to swim the 200 I.M. here, placing third at the United States nationals three weeks ago in Indianapolis.

She was entered only because Elizabeth Pelton, the runner-up at nationals, bowed out of the event because the final was the same day as the heats and semifinals of the 100 backstroke (Pelton placed 13th in the semifinals).

“Liz gave me the opportunity, and I made the most of it,” Kukors said.

She had been laid low by the flu in the weeks leading to the nationals, at one point becoming severely dehydrated, so she expected to swim faster here. But four seconds faster than her best time? Actually, yes.

“The goal all year was 2:06,” said Kukors’s coach, Sean Hutchison. “We split it out and said, O.K., you can do it.”

Before the meet is through, Kukors hopes to repay the debt she owes Pelton. “She told me she was going to take me out to dinner,” Pelton said.

Where will they go? “I don’t really care,” she said, “as long as I get gelato at the end.”