The high, whining trill along the Jones Falls grows quieter by the hour, and the buzz over Michael Phelps crescendoed with the meet’s finale last night. It closed a chapter on an already eventful life, but unlike cicadas, Phelps is not moving underground.
He said farewell to Baltimore with a virtuoso performance in the event that put him on the international swim map as he posted the world’s fastest time of the year in the 200 butterfly at the Meadowbrook Aquatic and Fitness Center.
It was his last gasp as an age-grouper – Phelps turns 19 June 30 – and the last time he’ll represent the North Baltimore Aquatic Club before the U.S. Olympic trials. He’ll wear the red, white and blue at the games themselves. After that, he’ll follow his coach, Bob Bowman, to Ann Arbor, Mich., and Club Wolverine.
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Phelps could be the most decorated athlete in Athens. He’ll presumably remain a major player for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, and who knows what by the time the cicadas resurface in 2021?
“It’s hard to say goodbye to this place,” Phelps said, “seeing all the faces you’ve seen for so many years.”
The last individual event of a four-day meet held at the only pool he’s called home was awash in symbolism.
Instead of advertising one of his corporate sponsors, he wore an NBAC cap. The 200 butterfly is the event that got Phelps his berth in the 2000 Olympics. It made him the youngest man ever to establish a world record in a stopwatch sport, got him his first world title and the Speedo contract that allowed him to turn professional.
That trifecta came in 2001, but since then there have been long stretches in which Phelps saw to other events – he’s No. 1 or 2 all-time in four others – at the expense of his signature event.
Two months ago, food poisoning forced him to scratch in Indianapolis, and he had not raced a 200 butterfly since last July’s world championships, when he lowered his world record to 1:53.93.
It was hard to tell if distant lightning or flash photography illuminated Meadowbrook when Phelps took off at 7:40 last night. He came home in 1:56.04, with a margin of more than 11 seconds.
The meet was first held in 1987, two years after Phelps was born. Before Sunday’s loss to training partner Kevin Clements in the 200 breaststroke, an off event Phelps swam to shore up his weakest stroke, his record in the meet was in the area of 60-1. The previous loss had come in 1997, when Bowman forced a 12-year-old to swim the men’s 1,500.
Phelps acknowledged the influence of NBAC gold medalists Anita Nall and Beth Botsford, and following his sisters, Hilary and Whitney, to the club. Before he raced, his mother, Debbie, received lilies in recognition of the work she’s put in at the NBAC. The well-wishers included his father, Fred.
As is usually the case, Phelps was one of the last to leave, as he accommodated a team from Ohio that seized one last photo op.
Today, he’ll be at Riverview Elementary School in southwestern Baltimore County, rewarding a reading program. Tomorrow brings the national debut of a Visa commercial with special effects that have him swimming from Athens to the Statue of Liberty – and turning around for a return lap.
“I’m living a dream come true,” Phelps said. (Results, 6c)
<!– ART CREDITGENE SWEENEY JR. : SUN STAFF
ART CREDIT–> <!– CUTLINE TEXTRepresenting the North Baltimore Aquatic Club for the final time and ending his age-group career, Michael Phelps swam the 200 butterfly in 1:56.04 last night, the best time in the world this year.
CUTLINE TEXT–> <!– ART CREDITGENE SWEENEY JR. : SUN STAFF
ART CREDIT–> <!– CUTLINE TEXT"It's hard to say goodbye to this place," Michael Phelps said of the Meadowbrook pool, "seeing all the faces you've seen for so many years."
CUTLINE TEXT–>