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Beijing — His Olympics looking lost, Michael Phelps decided to flap those gangly arms one more time.
Milorad Cavic, so close to spoiling it all, glided along just under the surface, convinced he had won gold.
But Phelps swam into history with a magnificent finish Saturday, tying Mark Spitz with his seventh gold medal by the narrowest of margins in the 100-meter butterfly — one-hundredth of a second.
“Dream as big as you can dream and anything is possible,” Phelps said. “I am sort of in a dream world. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to make sure it is real.”
Greatest swimmer
Call it the Great Haul of China — and it’s not done yet. Phelps has one more race on Sunday, which will likely complete his coronation as the greatest Olympian ever.
Spitz already ceded the title.
“It goes to show you that not only is this guy the greatest swimmer of all time and the greatest Olympian of all time, he’s maybe the greatest athlete of all time,” the icon of the 1972 Munich Games said. “He’s the greatest racer who ever walked the planet.”
Protest
The finish was so close the Serbian delegation filed a protest and swimming’s governing body had to review the tape down to the 10-thousandth of a second.
Phelps thought he lost — until he saw the “1” beside his name on the scoreboard.
“When I did chop the last stroke, I thought that had cost me the race,” he said. “But it was actually the opposite. If I had glided, I would have been way too long. I took short, faster strokes to try to get my hand on the wall. I ended up making the right decision.”
Phelps’ time was 50.58 seconds, the only time in these Olympics that he won an event without breaking the world record.
Not to worry. The 23-year-old American has now pulled even with the greatest of Olympic records.
‘Epic’
“One word: epic,” Spitz told The Associated Press from Detroit. “I’m so proud of what he’s been able to do. I did what I did and it was in my day in those set of circumstances. For 36 years it stood as a benchmark. I’m just pleased that somebody was inspired by what I had done. He’s entitled to every second of what’s occurring to him now.
Final event
Phelps will return today to swim in his final event of these games, taking the butterfly leg of the 4x100 medley relay. The Americans will be heavily favored to give him his eighth gold, leaving Spitz behind.
Phelps slapped his hands on the water and let out a scream after the astonishing finish. The crowd at the Water Cube gasped — it looked as though Cavic had won — then roared when the “1” popped up beside the American’s name.
Cavic’s time was 50.59.
The Serbian delegation filed a protest, but conceded that Phelps won after reviewing the tape provided by FINA, swimming’s governing body.
“We filed the protest but it is already over,” said Branislav Jevtic, Serbia’s chief of mission for all sports. “They examined the video and I think the case is closed. The video says (Phelps) finished first.
“In my opinion, it’s not right, but we must follow the rules. Everybody saw what happened.” AP
