Phelps Leaves Rome With Another Gold

小臭贝

ROME — Of course Michael Phelps could have retired after winning eight gold medals in eight races at the 2008 Olympics. And Michelangelo could have listened to Pope Julius II and confined his painting of the Sistine Chapel ceiling to the 12 apostles.
In February, when Phelps was wavering about getting back in the water, his coach, Bob Bowman, told him: “This is your gift. You’re like an artist. You don’t just throw your gift away because you did something great.”

In the same way that Michelangelo looked at six stories of scaffolding and saw no artistic ceiling, Phelps studied his perfect showing in Beijing and saw endless possibilities to grow and express his gift.

At the world championships, which concluded Sunday, the first brush strokes of Phelps’s expanded vision were on display, and they blended almost seamlessly with the masterpiece he finished last year.

Phelps was the most decorated swimmer of the meet, with five gold medals and one silver. He secured his final gold Sunday as part of the United States’ 4x100-meter medley relay. The squad of Aaron Peirsol, Eric Shanteau, Phelps and David Walters never trailed on its way to lowering the world record to 3 minutes 27.28 seconds.

“I think a competition like this really brings out the best in me,” Phelps said. “It doesn’t matter how much energy I have, it’s all going to go into every race. I think that’s one of the things that I enjoy most is stepping onto the blocks, no matter what kind of shape I’m in, and racing.”

For those wondering what Phelps, 24, could possibly do for an encore after surpassing Mark Spitz as the most decorated athlete in a single Olympics, he provided an inspired answer. While others wrung their hands over swimsuit technology, Phelps donned his Speedo LZR Racer, a supposedly inferior suit, and reminded everybody that old-fashioned racing, not newfangled technology, was what drove the sport.

The 100 butterfly final Saturday night will be remembered long after the last person has left the Foro Italico and the shredder that made confetti of the record books is turned off. It was a magnificent race, pitting the phlegmatic Phelps, the 2008 Olympic champion in the event, against the more talkative Milorad Cavic, whom Phelps defeated in Beijing by one-hundredth of a second.

The race unfolded according to the script, with Cavic going out fast and Phelps finishing strong. Phelps was timed in 49.82, and he dragged Cavic under 50 seconds with him.

“That kind of says it all about Michael,” Mark Schubert, the general manager of USA Swimming, said. He added, “An incredible talent, incredible background and probably the greatest mental toughness I’ve ever witnessed.”

Phelps described his sub-50-second swim as a mere glimpse into his imagination. “For me, I just have more things I want to do,” he said. “That’s why I wanted to come back.”

In the years leading to the Beijing Games, Phelps’s principle competition came from within the United States: Ian Crocker in the 100 butterfly; Ryan Lochte in the 200 and 400 individual medleys and 200 backstroke; and Peirsol in the 200 backstroke.

As befits the shifting world order, Phelps’s main competition now comes from Europe. Germany’s Paul Biedermann upset him with shocking ease in the 200 freestyle, and Cavic figures to remain a stitch in Phelps’s side for the foreseeable future.

The winners came from all over, from Australia to Zimbabwe. Swimmers from 17 countries won gold medals, a sea change from the 2007 worlds, when the United States and Australia combined to win 30 of the 40 events.

“I don’t think we can take away from the athleticism and the great racing that’s gone on with so many different countries,” Schubert said. “That was very impressive. And I think the competitiveness of so many countries is what this meet will be remembered for.”

The introduction this year of the two most popular polyurethane suits here, the Jaked 01 and Arena X-Glide, contributed mightily to the record assault. And not just in the obvious way, by helping swimmers remain more buoyant and streamlined in the water.

The suits, which will be banned starting Jan. 1, created chaos and consternation but also a kind of clarity, according to Peirsol. “In some strange way, it kind of opened the door,” he said. “You almost stop creating a barrier for yourself. You go beyond what you thought you could do.”

Lochte went beyond what he believed he was capable of, given his limited training this year. He took four months off after winning four Olympic medals, including an individual gold, in Beijing. On Sunday in the 400 I.M., an event Phelps dominated at this meet two years ago but has decided not to swim anymore, Lochte staved off a late charge by his teammate Tyler Clary to win his fourth gold and fifth medal. “I was kind of going on fumes at the end,” Lochte said. “I’m just completely dead.”

Phelps, Lochte and the British backstroker Gemma Spofforth were the only swimmers to break world records in Olympic events here while wearing the Speedo LZR Racer; in all, 43 world record fell at the meet. In becoming the first man under 1:52 in the 200 butterfly and the first to break the 50-second barrier in the 100 fly, Phelps reminded everyone that it was not always the suit on the swimmer that deserved the credit, but the swimmer in the suit.

“He’s motivated, he’s into it,” Bowman said of Phelps. “He’s had this experience, which he thrives on. Now we can go back and actually put some work under it.”