Michael Phelps won the 100-meter butterfly Friday night, cooled down for 10 minutes, attended the medals ceremony, then sat down to talk with his personal coach, Bob Bowman.
The victory had given Phelps his fifth gold medal, his seventh overall medal and the right to swim the butterfly leg for the U.S. in Saturday’s 4×100-meter medley relay final. But Phelps made a most surprising decision: He decided to cede that opportunity to Ian Crocker, the man he had just defeated.
The gesture will not affect Phelps’ medal collection; because he swam in the relay semifinal Friday morning, he will receive whatever medal the team might win. But for an athlete with his competitive fire, this was not an easy decision.
“Giving that [up] is tough, it really is,” Phelps said. “But Ian is one of the great relay swimmers on the U.S. team here … [and] I’m willing to give him a chance to step up.”
Crocker was still in doping control when Phelps made his announcement.
“I’m kind of speechless,” he said when informed of it. “I feel it’s a huge gift that’s difficult to accept, but makes me want to go out and tear up the pool [Saturday].
“I’m kind of tearing up. I’m going to do everything I can to make it feel like it was the right decision.”
Crocker had come down with a sore throat two days before swimming opened Aug. 14, and in his first appearance of the Games, his anemic opening leg in the 4×100 freestyle relay cost the U.S.–and Phelps–any chance for a gold. Crocker then failed to qualify for the semifinals of the 100 freestyle.
But Friday night he proved himself healthy by finishing only 13/100ths of a second behind Phelps in the butterfly.
Crocker also is the world record-holder in the fly, far more experienced than Phelps in relays and a better starter in relays.
“He made the best decision for the team,” said Eddie Reese, head coach of the U.S. men’s team and Crocker’s personal coach. “It’s a hell of a gesture. It’s correct. But it’s a hell of a gesture, and it had to come from him.”
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“Michael said he felt that was the right thing to do,” Bowman said. “I suggested to Michael that whatever is in his heart is what he should do. In his heart, he feels Ian deserves a chance.”
Phelps sounded sure.
“Ian is one of the best relay swimmers in U.S. history,” he said. “He’s had a history of that, and it definitely came into play [in the decision]. When we want to put the four fastest guys in there, we look at everything.”
Phelps has swum for the last time in these Games, and he certainly had fun in the 100 fly.
He lost that race to Crocker at last summer’s world championships, and for motivation, he hung a poster of his rival on his bedroom wall in Baltimore. He lost again to Crocker at last month’s trials and looked on his way to yet another defeat as they flipped and turned for home Friday.
“I saw him coming off the wall,” Phelps said, indicating how big his 77/100ths-second gap was.
“All the races that Michael’s been close to me at 50, I’ve lost,” Crocker said. “So I know in the first 50 I need to use my speed and get as much pool between myself and him as possible.”
“Then,” Reese said, “here comes the little shark from `Jaws.'”
But Phelps did not respond quickly, and still he was half a body length behind only 15 meters from the finish.
“I saw him kind of moving forward but actually I didn’t watch the finish,” Bowman said. “I thought, `He’s moving up, but he’s not going to get there.’ Then I turned and looked up [at the scoreboard]. I thought he didn’t make it.”
But he did make it.
“I was able to hit the wall well,” Phelps said. “That’s all I can say.”
“He was actually behind when he touched first,” Reese said. “It was literally getting his hand on the wall first. It was an amazing race.”
It also was an amazing end to Phelps’ amazing week in the pool, where he collected five golds and two bronzes with a chance for one more.
With four individual golds, he matched the number Mark Spitz won in 1972 and joined Spitz as the only male swimmer to win more than two in a single Games. If the heavily favored IM relay team wins any medal, Phelps will match the single-Games record of eight won by Soviet gymnast Aleksandr Dityatin in 1980.
Those are gaudy numbers, gaudy accomplishments, but even they were overshadowed by the gesture Phelps made for Crocker.
“I feel it was a decision only Michael could make,” Crocker said. “It helps to know Eddie had nothing to do with it.”
Phelps said Crocker “wasn’t feeling well in the 400 freestyle relay, but he’s starting to feel better and better every day. So I’m willing to give a teammate another chance. Like I said: We came into this meet as a team, and we’re going to be leaving it as a team.”