Phelps Makes His Marks

It took 18-year-old Michael Phelps of Baltimore about 46 minutes Friday at the world championships to go where no other male swimmer had ventured before.

He broke two world records on the same day in different individual events, first in the semifinals of the 100-meter butterfly (51.47 seconds) and then in the final of the 200 individual medley, going 1:56.04 and beating Australian superstar Ian Thorpe by more than 3 1/2 seconds.

It reduced their highly anticipated showdown to something of a footnote.

“It’s a good accomplishment I’ve had. It’s exciting to have that spot in history,” said Phelps, who recorded his fourth world record of the championships. “I thought I was going to go faster, but I didn’t know I was going to go a second and a half faster [in the medley] than I went [Thursday]. It surprised me a little bit.”

His unequaled night overshadowed an impressive array of accomplishments, starting with Amanda Beard, formerly of Irvine, tying the world record in the 200 breaststroke final, in 2:22.99, and Aaron Peirsol of the Irvine Novaquatics winning his second gold medal, taking the 200 backstroke in 1:55.92. Earlier, Larsen Jensen, who trains at Mission Viejo, set an American record in the 800 freestyle (7:48.09), finishing second to Grant Hackett of Australia.

“I was waiting in the awards room, watching his race, I just kind of stared at the screen,” Peirsol said of Phelps. “It kind of humbled me. I had a pretty good race, but it overshadowed everything else.”

Phelps’ motivation came from Andrii Serdinov of Ukraine, who reached the world record first in the 100 butterfly, the mark that had eluded Phelps these last few months. Serdinov stunned the crowd by breaking Australian Michael Klim’s world record in the opening semifinal, going 51.76 seconds.

Klim’s mark of 51.81 had stood since Dec. 12, 1999. When Serdinov got it first, Phelps seemed to almost take it personally in the back half of the race. He took the record down considerably despite having the slowest opening 50 meters of all of the semifinalists.

“It’s better to have the world record for five minutes than not at all,” Serdinov said. “I’m very happy. Not sad. That was a big surprise for me. And Michael Phelps? Crazy guy. Crazy result. I don’t know what else you can say about Michael Phelps.”

Phelps’ longtime coach, Bob Bowman, watched the body language on the deck and knew how his swimmer would respond.

“You know, really, what I thought? I thought, ‘Oh, that poor kid,’ ” Bowman said. “Michael had a look in his eye. I was watching from up in the corner. It’s a good vantage point. Michael came out and I thought, ‘Oh, something’s going to happen here.’ He had that look.

“It’s intensity.... He was totally focused on what he was going to do. Usually when he does that, something is going to happen.”

His second record Friday had his mother and sister emotional in the stands, and Bowman said the historic accomplishment was “what every coach dreams of,” and said it was hard to describe.

Thorpe rarely gets blown away in any race.

“It really is unknown territory for myself simply because I haven’t done so many of them. I used to do them when I was younger,” Thorpe said of the individual medley. “To come here to the World Championships and come second and be beaten by three seconds, it doesn’t really concern me.

” ... For me to come in here and expect to win the event, like everyone else expected of me, was something that was unrealistic and wasn’t going to happen.”

Phelps holds records in the 100 and 200 butterfly and the 200 and 400 individual medley, joining legends Mark Spitz and Michael Gross in becoming the only men to hold four world records in individual races.

Afterward, the focus of the news conference shifted to Phelps as questions came about his being the challenger to the mythic standard of Spitz’s seven Olympic gold medals, not Thorpe.

“I do think it’s possible,” Bowman said. “A lot of factors come into play. It’s not just Michael or Ian, it’s the relay teams. There’s a lot of things beyond just their individual control.”

Said Phelps: “You can set standards no one else can set or you can do a lot of different things, but your mind pretty much controls it all.”

After Phelps said he had been inspired by listening to Eminem’s “The Eminem Show,” the third-place finisher in the 200 IM, Massimiliano Rosolino of Italy joked, “The first thing I’m going to do is buy that CD. All the songs, I’m going to listen to them all.”