Swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metre butterfly

The men's 100 metre butterfly event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on 14–16 August at the Beijing National Aquatics Center in Beijing, China.[1]

Men's 100 metre butterfly at the Games of the XXIX Olympiad
Michael Phelps during the medal ceremony
Venue	Beijing National Aquatics Center
Dates	August 14 (heats) August 15 (semifinals) August 16 (final)
Competitors	66 from 51 nations
Winning time	50.58 OR
Medalists
Michael Phelps  United States Milorad Čavić  Serbia Andrew Lauterstein  Australia

U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps set a new Olympic record of 50.58 to defend his title in the event, edging out Serbia's Milorad Čavić (50.59) by one hundredth of a second (0.01). He also earned his seventh Olympic gold at a single Games, tying Mark Spitz's 1972 record for the most gold medals.[2][3][4] Australia's Andrew Lauterstein earned a bronze in 51.12, finishing in a close race against world record holder Ian Crocker by the slimmest margin. Phelps' triumph occurred after Čavić had remarked that it would be better for the sport if Phelps was defeated.[2] Phelps' margin of triumph was so close that the Serbian team filed a protest, but after officials reviewed the video, the International Swimming Federation (FINA) announced that Phelps did touch the wall first and his victory would be upheld.[2]

Kenya's Jason Dunford finished fifth with a time of 51.47, and was followed in the sixth spot by Japan's Takuro Fujii, in an Asian record of 51.50. Ukraine's Andriy Serdinov (51.59), the bronze medalist in Athens four years earlier, and Papua New Guinea's Ryan Pini, gold medalist at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, (51.86) closed out the field. Dunford and Pini also made history as the first swimmer for their respective nation to reach an Olympic final.[2]

Out of six individual events from his Olympic program, Phelps did not break the current world record in a final, finishing 0.18 of a second behind Crocker's time of 50.40, set in 2005. In the entire event, other records were established, the Olympic record, five continental records, and several national records.[5]

Preview

Due to a combination of the venue, Beijing National Aquatics Center (better known as the Water Cube), which was claimed to be built to increase the speed of the swimmers,[6] and the recently introduced LZR Racer swim suits, which had been proven to give the swimmer a lower time by 1.9 to 2.2%,[7] some analysts were predicting that many fast times and world records would be set in all the swimming events.[8]

As with almost every event that he entered in at the 2008 Summer Olympics, Michael Phelps was the favorite to win the men's 100 metre butterfly. Since winning the gold medal at the previous Games, in Athens, Phelps had demonstrated his superiority in this event, by also becoming world champion at the Melbourne 2007 World Championships, and achieving victory at the United States Olympic Trials.[9] Therefore, the 100 metre butterfly was one of the eight Olympic events where Phelps was attempting to win a gold medal.[10]

Michael Phelps, seen here in February 2008, was the heavy favorite to win the gold medal.

Going into the event, Phelps' compatriot Ian Crocker was seen as the swimmer with the best chance of beating Phelps. Crocker beat Phelps' 100 metre butterfly world record in 2003, and had since lowered it twice: once at the 2004 United States Olympic trials, and then at the 2005 World Championships in Montreal.[11] Before the Olympics, Crocker and Phelps held the seventeen fastest times ever in the event.[11] In 2004, Crocker was the favorite in the men's 100 metre butterfly, but lost to Phelps by four hundredths of a second.[11] This victory gave Phelps the right to swim in the final of the 4 × 100 metre medley relay, however he gave up the spot to Crocker, and took his turn in the semifinals.[11] Although holding the world record, Crocker had lost the last four times that he was up against Phelps in the 100 metre butterfly, including the 2008 United States Olympic Trials.[11] Some thought that Crocker was not in the same shape that he was when we broke the world record, including Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) analyst Byron MacDonald who said that "If he's (Crocker) going to beat Phelps in Beijing, Crocker has to get close to his world record time of 50.40. He just hasn't shown it [he] can do it this year".[9]

Another threat to Phelps' goal was Serbia's Milorad Čavić. In Athens 2004, Čavić was leading in a semifinal of the 100 metre butterfly, but right after his final turn, his suit opened at the neck and sucked in water, causing Čavić to finish last with a time of 53.12 seconds.[12] At the 2008 European Championships, Čavić won the men's 50 metre butterfly and was the heavy favorite to win at twice that distance, but was suspended for wearing a "Kosovo is Serbia" T-shirt on the medal podium.[12] American swimmer Gary Hall, Jr. told The New York Times that although "Mike (Phelps) has been saying he’s going to win the 100 fly at the Olympics for the last year", he thought that Čavić would be the winner.[13]

Other possible medal contenders included Andriy Serdinov of Ukraine, who had won the Olympic bronze medal in 2004,[9] and Venezuelan Albert Subriats, a bronze medalist at the 2007 World Championships and seen as a potential spoiler, if he could match or improve on his 51.82 time, in Beijing.[9]

Competition

Heats

The heats began on August 14, at 19:57 local time (CST or UTC+8).[14] There were nine preliminary heats, but all sixteen qualifiers came from the last five heats. Only three swimmers participated in the first heat, which was won by Andrejs Duda of Latvia with a time of 55.20 seconds.[15] Heats 2, 3, and 4 were won by Shaune Fraser (Cayman Islands), Rimvydas Šalčius (Lithuania), and Jakob Schioett Andkjaer (Denmark), respectively.[15] Salcius, Jeremy Knowles (Bahamas), and Alon Mandel (Israel) all broke their countries' previous records, while in heat 4, Andkjaer, Michal Rubáček of the Czech Republic, Sotirios Pastras of Greece, and Ioan Stefan Gherghel of Romania also set new national records.[5] South African Lyndon Ferns was the first swimmer to qualify for the semifinals, winning heat 5 with a time of 52.04 seconds,[15] while national records were broken by Mario Todorović (Croatia), Simão Morgado (Portugal), and Douglas Lennox-Silva (Puerto Rico).[5] Sergii Breus (Ukraine) and Shi Feng (China), finished first and second in heat 6, with times of 51.82 and 51.87 seconds, respectively, that allowed them to reach the semifinals.[15] Five of the eight swimmers in heat 7 advanced as well, including Jason Dunford (Kenya), Andrew Lauterstein (Australia), Takuro Fujii (Japan), Frédérick Bousquet (France), and Ryan Pini (Papua New Guinea).[15] Dunford, with a 51.14 time, set a new Olympic record, beating Phelps' previous record of 51.25 seconds, achieved in the final of the 100 metre butterfly in Athens; he also set new African and Kenyan records.[5] Andrew Lauterstein's 51.37 time was a new Oceanic and Australian best.[15] Takuro Fujii set a Japanese and an Asian record with his 51.50 time.[15] The swimmers qualifying from heat 8 were Albert Subirats Altes (Venezuela), Corney Swanepoel (New Zealand), and Ian Crocker (United States).[15] Records broken in this heat included the South American and Venezuelan records (by Altes), and the New Zealand record (by Swanepoel).[15] Heat 9 was the fastest one, with Milorad Čavić (Serbia), Michael Phelps (United States), Andrii Serdinov (Ukraine), Peter Mankoč (Slovenia), and Kaio de Almeida (Brazil) all earning spots in the next round.[15] Čavić, the heat's winner with a 50.76 time, beat the Olympic record set by Dunford two heats earlier,[5] thus also setting a new European and Serbian record. Serdinov and Mankoč also managed to break their national records.[5]

Semifinals

The semifinals were held on August 15 and started at 11:26 CST.[16] The first semifinal was won by Michael Phelps with a time of 50.97 seconds. Other three swimmers qualified from this semifinal: Andrew Lauterstein (51.27 seconds), Jason Dunford (51.33 seconds), and Ryan Pini (51.62 seconds).[15] Surprisingly, Albert Subirats Altes, the bronze medalist at the 2007 World Championships,[9] failed to qualify, after finishing in the sixth place.[15] Also missing the cut was the host nation's representative Shi Feng, Segii Breus, and Kaio de Almeida.[15] The second semifinal was won in 50.92 seconds by Milorad Čavić, once again. The remaining three qualifiers were Ian Crocker (51.27 seconds), Andriy Serdinov (51.41 seconds), and Takuro Fujii (51.59 seconds).[15] New time bests set in the semifinals included the Oceanic and Australian records (set by Lauterstein), and the Chinese record (set by Shi).[5]

Final

Crowds pack the Beijing National Aquatics Center on the morning of the final.

The final took place on August 16, at 10:10 CST.[17] Before the race, Milorad Čavić made headlines by saying in an interview that it would be better for swimming if he beat Phelps.[4] Phelps' coach Bob Bowman used the quote to provide motivation to his protégé. In an interview, Phelps said that doubters like Čavić "fires me up more than anything, I always welcome comments. It definitely motivates me even more."[18] Almost immediately after the race started, Čavić took the lead with Phelps getting off to a slow start. At the turn, Čavić was first,[19][20] followed by Ian Crocker,[19] while Phelps made the split in seventh place, just 0.62 seconds behind Čavić.[20] As the two approached the finish, Čavić tried to coast to the wall on one last stroke,[20] while Phelps, who had misjudged the end, took an extra half-stroke, causing both competitors to touch the wall at almost exactly the same time.[4] It turned out that Phelps had actually finished one one-hundredth of a second ahead of Čavić, with a time of 50.58 seconds.[21] Phelps even admitted that, at first, he thought the extra stroke he took had cost him the gold medal, until he looked at the scoreboard displaying the results.[18] Andrew Lauterstein won the bronze medal, also beating Crocker by one one-hundredth of a second.[18]

Several records were broken at the final. For the first time at the 2008 Summer Olympics, Phelps did not break the current world record in a final, finishing eighteen one-hundredths of a second behind team-mate Crocker's 50.40-second world record from 2005; he did though set a new Olympic record.[4] Three continental records were broken in the final, with Fujii setting a new Asian record, Čavić a new European record, and Lauterstein a new Oceanic record.[5] Although he finished last, swimmer Ryan Pini made history as the first swimmer from Papua New Guinea to swim in an Olympic final, and even received a call from the prime minister Michael Somare congratulating him.[22] Most notably though, Phelps won his seventh gold medal at these Games, tying Mark Spitz's record for most gold medals won at a single Olympic Games.[4] For being able to emulate Spitz's record, Speedo, a sponsor of Michael Phelps, awarded him a US$1 million bonus, which had already been offered to him at the 2004 Summer Olympics, under the same conditions.[2] After the final, the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) arranged a joint interview with Phelps and Spitz, where Spitz praised Phelps' effort, telling him that "what you did tonight was epic" and even though at one point, Phelps was more than half a second behind Čavić, Spitz "never thought for one moment you (Phelps) were out of that race."[4]

Protest

Almost immediately after the end of the race, the Serbian team filed a protest claiming that Čavić touched the wall first but did not use enough force to trigger the timing sensor.[20] Officials of the International Swimming Federation (FINA) watched the video in slow motion, and announced that Phelps' victory would be upheld. Ben Ekumbo, a FINA referee announced that "It's very clear that the Serbian swimmer touched second after Michael Phelps."[4] Although Serbia conceded their protest, not everyone was convinced that Phelps had won the gold medal; Branislav Jevtić, Serbia's deputy chef de mission for all sports, was quoted as saying "in my opinion, it's not right, but we must follow the rules. Everybody saw what happened."[18] In one interview following the race, Čavić said "I am completely happy with where I am", while in another he revealed that he expects that "people will be bringing this up for years and saying you (Čavić) won that race. If we got to do this again, I would win it".[20] While the result is still controversial, a high speed photograph shows Phelps touching the wall, while Čavić is still a short distance away.[23] In April 2015, Spitz said that he had been sent an email posted by Omega which stated that Phelps had lost the 100m butterfly final.[24]

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

World record	Ian Crocker (USA)	50.40 s	Montreal, Canada	30 July 2005	[25]
Olympic record	Michael Phelps (USA)	51.25 s	Athens, Greece	16 August 2004	[25]

The following records were established during the competition:

Date	Round	Name	Nationality	Time	Record
August 14	Heat 7	Jason Dunford	Kenya	51.14	OR
August 14	Heat 9	Milorad Čavić	Serbia	50.76	OR
August 16	Final	Michael Phelps	United States	50.58	OR

Results

Heats

Rank	Heat	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	9	5	Milorad Čavić	Serbia	50.76	Q, OR
2	9	4	Michael Phelps	United States	50.87	Q
3	9	7	Andriy Serdinov	Ukraine	51.10	Q, NR[5]
4	7	5	Jason Dunford	Kenya	51.14	Q, AF
5	9	2	Peter Mankoč	Slovenia	51.24	Q, NR[5]
6	7	3	Andrew Lauterstein	Australia	51.37	Q, OC
7	7	7	Takuro Fujii	Japan	51.50	Q, AS
8	8	5	Albert Subirats Altes	Venezuela	51.71	Q, NR
9	8	1	Corney Swanepoel	New Zealand	51.78	Q, NR[5]
10	6	2	Sergiy Breus	Ukraine	51.82	Q
11	7	4	Frédérick Bousquet	France	51.83	Q
12	6	8	Shi Feng	China	51.87	Q
13	8	4	Ian Crocker	United States	51.95	Q
14	7	2	Ryan Pini	Papua New Guinea	52.00	Q, NR
15	5	3	Lyndon Ferns	South Africa	52.04	Q
16	9	6	Kaio de Almeida	Brazil	52.05	Q
17	8	7	Adam Pine	Australia	52.07
18	6	6	Lars Frölander	Sweden	52.15
19	4	3	Jakob Andkjaer	Denmark	52.24
20	5	5	Mario Todorović	Croatia	52.26	NR[5]
	7	1	Nikolay Skvortsov	Russia
	9	1	Robin van Aggele	Netherlands
23	8	6	Gabriel Mangabeira	Brazil	52.28
24	8	3	Yevgeny Korotyshkin	Russia	52.30
25	4	4	Sotirios Pastras	Greece	52.41	NR[5]
26	9	3	Masayuki Kishida	Japan	52.45
27	6	4	Michael Rock	Great Britain	52.48
28	4	6	Ioan Gherghel	Romania	52.50	NR[5]
29	6	5	Todd Cooper	Great Britain	52.52
30	8	2	Rafael Muñoz	Spain	52.53
31	8	8	Christophe Lebon	France	52.56
32	6	3	Moss Burmester	New Zealand	52.67
33	5	1	Simão Morgado	Portugal	52.80	NR[5]
34	3	2	Rimvydas Šalčius	Lithuania	52.90	NR[5]
	7	8	Joe Bartoch	Canada
36	3	4	Alon Mandel	Israel	52.99	NR[5]
37	5	2	François Heersbrandt	Belgium	53.33
38	5	8	Douglas Lennox-Silva	Puerto Rico	53.34	NR[5]
39	5	6	Adam Sioui	Canada	53.38
40	5	4	Ivan Lenđer	Serbia	53.41
41	9	8	Benjamin Starke	Germany	53.50
42	4	1	Michal Rubáček	Czech Republic	53.53	NR[5]
43	5	7	Yevgeniy Lazuka	Belarus	53.54
44	7	6	Thomas Rupprath	Germany	53.56
45	4	2	Juan Veloz	Mexico	53.58
46	6	7	Octavio Alesi	Venezuela	53.58
47	6	1	Alexei Puninski	Croatia	53.65
48	4	8	Ryan Gambin	Malta	53.70
49	3	3	Jeremy Knowles	Bahamas	53.72	NR[5]
50	3	1	Adam Madarassy	Hungary	53.93
51	2	5	Shaune Fraser	Cayman Islands	54.08
52	3	8	Hjortur Mar Reynisson	Iceland	54.17
53	3	7	Camilo Becerra	Colombia	54.27
54	2	4	Daniel Bego	Malaysia	54.38
55	2	2	Gordon Touw Ngie Tjouw	Suriname	54.54
56	2	6	Rustam Khudiyev	Kazakhstan	54.62
57	4	7	Ankur Poseria	India	54.74
58	3	5	Onur Uras	Turkey	54.79
59	1	3	Andrejs Dūda	Latvia	55.20
60	3	6	Georgi Palazov	Bulgaria	55.25
61	2	3	Ahmed Nada	Egypt	55.59
	2	1	Bader Abdulrahman Almuhana	Saudi Arabia
63	1	4	Luis Matias	Angola	57.06
64	2	7	Nedim Nišić	Bosnia and Herzegovina	57.16
65	1	5	Marco Camargo	Ecuador	57.48
66	4	5	Mattia Nalesso	Italy	DNS

Semifinal 1

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	4	Michael Phelps	United States	50.97	Q
2	3	Andrew Lauterstein	Australia	51.27	Q, OC
3	5	Jason Dunford	Kenya	51.33	Q
4	1	Ryan Pini	Papua New Guinea	51.62	Q, NR
5	7	Shi Feng	China	51.68	NR[5]
6	6	Albert Subirats Altes	Venezuela	51.82
7	2	Sergiy Breus	Ukraine	52.05
8	8	Kaio de Almeida	Brazil	52.32

Semifinal 2

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	4	Milorad Čavić	Serbia	50.92	Q
2	1	Ian Crocker	United States	51.27	Q
3	5	Andriy Serdinov	Ukraine	51.41	Q
4	6	Takuro Fujii	Japan	51.59	Q
5	3	Peter Mankoč	Slovenia	51.80
6	2	Corney Swanepoel	New Zealand	52.01
7	8	Lyndon Ferns	South Africa	52.18
8	7	Frédérick Bousquet	France	52.94

Final

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	5	Michael Phelps	United States	50.58	OR
	4	Milorad Čavić	Serbia	50.59	EU
	3	Andrew Lauterstein	Australia	51.12	OC
4	6	Ian Crocker	United States	51.13
5	2	Jason Dunford	Kenya	51.47
6	1	Takuro Fujii	Japan	51.50	AS
7	7	Andriy Serdinov	Ukraine	51.59
8	8	Ryan Pini	Papua New Guinea	51.86

References

1. "Olympic Swimming Schedule". USA Today. 9 August 2008. Retrieved 14 May 2013.
2. Lohn, John (16 August 2008). "Olympics, Swimming: Huge Back Half Gives Michael Phelps Olympic Record in 100 Fly, Matches Mark Spitz With Seven Golds; $1 Million Richer". Swimming World Magazine. Retrieved 17 May 2013.
3. Michaelis, Vicki (16 August 2008). "Phelps wins 100m butterfly thriller to tie Spitz's record". USA Today. Retrieved 17 May 2013.
4. Crouse, Karen (2008-08-15). "Phelps Wins 7th Gold With 0.01 to Spare". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-08-26.
5. "100 m Butterfly Long Course". scmsom. Retrieved 2008-08-26.
6. "China's Olympic Swimming Pool: Redefining Fast". National Public Radio. 2008-08-10. Retrieved 2008-08-30.
7. "Celebrity Rules as the Olympics strays far from its ideal". The Japan Times. 2008-08-10. Retrieved 2008-08-30.
8. "Five swim predictions: Aussie women strong". Yahoo Sports. 2008-08-07. Retrieved 2008-09-03.
9. "Men's 100-metre Butterfly". Canadian Broadcasting Company. 2008-08-12. Archived from the original on August 19, 2008. Retrieved 2008-08-30.
10. "Phelps wins historic eighth gold medal". CNN. 2008-08-18. Retrieved 2008-08-26.
11. Crouse, Karen (2008-08-04). "Crocker Enjoying His Ride to Beijing". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-08-30.
12. "Controversial O.C. Serb could spoil Phelps' gold rush". OC Register. 2008-08-14. Retrieved 2008-08-30.
13. Clarey, Christopher (2008-08-16). "Cavic Finds a Personal Triumph in the Narrowest of Defeats". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-08-29.
14. "Competition information – Swimming (August 14)". Official website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad. Archived from the original on 2008-09-06. Retrieved 2008-09-02.
15. "XXIX Olympic Games". SwimRankings.net. 2008-08-17. Retrieved 2008-08-27.
16. "Competition information – Swimming (August 15)". Official website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad. Archived from the original on 2008-09-02. Retrieved 2008-09-02.
17. "Competition information – Swimming (August 16)". Official website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad. Archived from the original on 2008-09-02. Retrieved 2008-09-02.
18. "Phelps ties Spitz's record with seventh gold medal ... just barely". Sports Illustrated. 2008-08-16. Archived from the original on September 1, 2008. Retrieved 2008-08-26.
19. Michaelis, Vicki (2008-08-15). "Phelps wins 100 m butterfly thriller to tie Spitz's record". USA Today. Retrieved 2008-08-27.
20. "Phelps wins gold; Serbians protest result". Canada.com. 2008-08-15. Archived from the original on 2008-08-17. Retrieved 2008-08-26.
21. "It's 8: Phelps passes Spitz with another gold". Yahoo! Sports. 2008-08-17. Retrieved 2008-08-26.
22. "PNG swimmer makes history". Radio Australia. 2008-08-19. Archived from the original on 2008-08-26. Retrieved 2008-08-26.
23. "Phelps Frame-By-Frame". Si.com. Retrieved 2016-08-14.
24. "Michael Phelps was given an Olympic gold in a race he did not win, claims Mark Spitz". telegraph.co.uk. 18 April 2015.
25. "Olympic and World Records. Swimming: 100 m butterfly - Progression". International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 2008-09-04.

External links

• Official Reports
• Phelps-Čavić Finish Photos by Sports Illustrated
• Associated Press report on YouTube
• Cavic Or Phelps Wall Touch on YouTube