Phelps' magnificent seven
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.With apologies to Alex Ferguson: swimming, bloody hell. On yet another barely credible day in the sporting life of America's titanic dolphin man, Michael Phelps came from behind yesterday to win the equivalent of a photo finish by a whisker in the 100m butterfly to earn his seventh gold medal of these Games.
That matched Mark Spitz's 1972 record, although when Phelps went to his outsize bed last night he did so in the knowledge that he still had an eighth shot at gold here to come, in the4 x 100m medley relay this morning, Beijing time.
The record books will show that Phelps, 23, won the 100m fly in 50.58sec by a margin of 0.01sec from Serbia's Milorad Cavic. That barely begins to tell the tale of an extraordinary race. Cavic's coach lodged an official protest because he was convinced his man had touched first. Television pictures initially suggested that might have been the case, but it really was too close for the human eye to call.
Swimming's world governing body turned to slow-mo cameras for a decision, and to a back-up timing system. Every method showed 50.58sec on the touch for Phelps, 50.59sec for Cavic. One official calculated that Phelps won by 4.7 milli-metres – in other words, fingertips. Again. That is how Phelps' US relay team won the 4 x 100m freestyle gold earlier in the week.
"When I took that last stroke I thought I lost the race, but it turns out it made the difference," said Phelps.
As well as another Olym-pic gold, the 13th of his career, Phelps earned a$1 million bonus from Speedo for matching Spitz's record. Spitz, now 58, was among those who paid extravagant tribute to his young compatriot: "Not only is Phelps the greatest swimmer of all time and the greatest Olympian of all time, he's maybe the greatest athlete of all time."
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments