This is your Mission, Mr. Phelps

I saw posted on a board somewhere the opinion that someone needs to make up a nickname for Michael Phelps. I don't agree; do we need a nickname for Michael Jackson? For Michael Jordan? If anything, "Mr. Phelps" of the original Mission Impossible gets across the improbability of his success, his professionalism, strict adherence to the mission, etc.

Swimming seems to be a sport where too many medals are awarded. Winning eight gold medals in any other Olympic sport would seem to be an impossibility (perhaps in men's gymnastics, with an all-round event, team competition, and six individual apparatus events, it would be theoretically possible). Phelps apparently is at a world-class level in all four competitive strokes and any short-to-medium distance, so, if the swim meet were longer, he could have won even more. He and his coach, Bob Bowman, have set new standards in designing his "swim program". It was designed in great detail to maximize his chances, and he carefully rationed every erg of effort to make his energy last through through the arduous meet and only give full effort when it was required.

The 100 butterfly--Phelps' seventh gold--was the most amazing, and the most controversial. It was the only event he did not set a new world record (solo, or in combo with his relay teammates), and with half a length to go he was clearly a beaten swimmer. Milorad Cavic (pronounced "cabbage") of Serbia clearly outswam him over the distance. To Phelps' credit, he didn't let that stop his execution. Phelps was there at the end because of his turn and his superior finishing technique.

Cavic's appeal (I understand he had a coach with American training) should have focused on the argument that the result was a tie, which, visually, it would be impossible to deny. It would also not have deprived Phelps of his gold, which would have been politically unthinkable for judges to consider.

The argument hinges on the precision of measurement of the elapsed time. Phelps was clocked in 50.58 and Cavic in 50.59. These results are rounded to the nearest hundredth--if a result is rounded to the same hundredth, then it's a tie, and there were several such results in the swimming competition (with "swim-offs" for qualification, and multiple medals given for ties in the medal positions). In order to be sure that the result is correct, official measurements would need to have a maximum error of .0005 or less.