Phelps Ends With High Five

From unbeatable to beatable, from super to merely human and back to super, all this zigzagging at the swimming world championships had virtually no effect on Michael Phelps of Baltimore and his sense of self.

He delivered a succinct sound bite, which could come only from an 18-year-old, mentioning the architecture of the host city, Barcelona. “It’s insane,” said Phelps, smiling the same wide smile.

He also could have been talking about his record-book rewrite job.

On Sunday, he became the first man to set five world records in individual events in the same meet, even surpassing Mark Spitz’s four at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Phelps made it five when he lowered his mark in the 400-meter individual medley, finishing in 4 minutes 9.09 seconds, eclipsing his 4:10.73 on April 6 at Indianapolis.

Next for Phelps will be taking aim at Spitz’s seven Olympic gold medals, not nearly as unthinkable as it was when this meet started July 20.

“He’s amazing,” Rosolino Massimiliano of Italy said. “These are his world championships. Last time, it was Thorpey’s.”

Who would expect Ian Thorpe of Australia to be discussed in the past tense? Thorpe won three gold, a silver and a bronze, but lost his confrontation with Phelps in the 200 medley.

There was one more world record for the Americans in the 400 medley relay. The team of Aaron Peirsol, Brendan Hansen, Ian Crocker and Jason Lezak won in 3:31.54, surpassing the previous mark of 3:33.48 by the U.S. last year at Yokohama, Japan.

Crocker, not Phelps, swam the butterfly leg because he won the 100 butterfly Saturday. Phelps was in the morning preliminaries, meaning he receives a commemorative gold medal. So, he leaves Barcelona with five medals -- three gold and two silver -- according to the standards of FINA, the international governing body of swimming. USA Swimming will list him as winning six, an official said.

Phelps seemed to set records at will and emerged as the leading international sports figure heading into the 2004 Olympics, becoming the face of Athens.

“I’ve had a great week of swimming here,” Phelps said. “I couldn’t ask for anything more. I left every ounce of energy that I had in the pool. It’s definitely a great experience. My goal coming into it was to do a best time in every single event, and I accomplished that goal.”

His other four records at Barcelona were in the 200 medley (twice), the 200 butterfly and the 100 butterfly semifinals, a mark surpassed the next day by Crocker. It shocked the crowd at Palau Sant Jordi and prompted a headline in a Spanish paper Sunday: “Phelps Is Human.”

Laszlo Cseh of Hungary had a faster qualifying time than Phelps in the preliminaries in the 400 medley. He made it tense in the final, pulling closer in the last 100. Cseh was second in 4:10.79 and Oussama Melloui, of Tunisia and USC, finished third in 4:15.36.

“Bad,” Phelps said, on the feeling in the final 50. “When I flipped at the wall and saw Laszlo coming closer, I had to kick it into gear as hard as I could that last 50 to try to bring it home.”

The latest world record did not ease the loss to Crocker.

“I’m never going to forget the 100 fly,” Phelps said. “Last summer, Tom [Malchow] beat me in the 200 fly and it really motivated me and this year I came back and retook my event.”

Crocker was trying not to think about it as well, turning his attention to the relay. Peirsol and Lezak swim for the Irvine Novaquatics, and Crocker, Hansen and Peirsol swim at the University of Texas for Olympic men’s Coach Eddie Reese.

Their splits were outstanding. Peirsol’s backstroke was 53.71, Hansen’s breaststroke 59.61, Crocker’s butterfly 50.39 and Lezak’s freestyle 47.83. Russia was second. The highly regarded Australians were disqualified in the preliminaries after a bad exchange between the backstroke and breaststroke legs.

“Next year, we want those relays bad,” said Peirsol, who won three gold medals and a silver. “We know Australia is going to be tough, but I think ... “

Said Lezak, smiling: “I think they were a little scared because they knew going into it that....I can say that with two world-record holders, and myself and Brendan aren’t that far off. Next year hopefully it would be great if we had four guys, all individual world-record holders on the medley relay.”

The United States finished first with 28 medals, including 11 gold. Australia had 22, six of them gold. But the totals aren’t the most accurate assessment because the world championships have too many non-Olympic events.

“I’ve just got chills,” Peirsol said. “In one year, so much can happen. The team is so young and can improve so much, next year, just thinking about all the talent, it’s going to be incredible.”

Said Tom Wilkens, who finished fourth in the 400 medley: “This is the first major meet in a while where we won all the major categories. I think it shows we’re the definitely the best swimming country.... It’s really amazing being a part of it, a year before the Olympics.”

Phelps was the symbol of that amazement. Wilkens, 27, kept calling him “the kid” and chuckled about it. Phelps said he wanted to buy a dog, among other things, to celebrate.

“I say ‘kid’ because I’m almost nine years older than him,” Wilkens said. “You hate to call him the Michael Jordan of our sport or something like that, but right now, he is bringing swimming to another level in these events.”

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

World Championships Records

World records set in the 2003 World Championships:

MEN

* 50 butterfly: 23.43, Matt Welsh, Australia.

* 50 backstroke: 24.80, Thomas Rupprath, Germany.

* 100 butterfly: 51.76, Andriy Serdino, Ukraine.

* 100 butterfly: 51.47, MICHAEL PHELPS, U.S.

* 100 butterfly: 50.98, Ian Crocker, U.S.

* 100 breaststroke: 59.78, Kosuke Kitajima, Japan.

* 200 butterfly: 1:53.93, MICHAEL PHELPS, U.S.

* 200 individual medley: 1:57.52, MICHAEL PHELPS, U.S.

* 200 breaststroke: 2:09.42, Kosuke Kitajima, Japan.

* 200 individual medley: 1:56.04, MICHAEL PHELPS, U.S.

* 400 individual medley: 4:09.09, MICHAEL PHELPS, U.S.

* 400 medley relay: --3:31.54, U.S.

(Aaron Peirsol, Brendan Hansen, Ian Crocker, Jason Lezak).

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WOMEN

* 100 breaststroke: 1:06.37, Leisel Jones, Australia.

* 200 breaststroke: 2:22.99, Amanda Beard, U.S.*

* Equals record set by Qi Hui, China, Hangzhou, China, April 13, 2001.