High-water marks

MONTREAL -- What does it say when Michael Phelps wins five gold medals and leaves here disappointed? Probably that USA Swimming has set an enormously high standard during the past half century.

When the froth finally settled after eight days at the biennial world swimming championships last night on the Ile Ste.-Helene, the Americans had topped the table for the sixth straight time, winning 15 golds and 32 total medals, 10 ahead of their archrival Australians, whom they'll meet head-to-head tomorrow in their ''Duel in the Pool" at Irvine, Calif. ''It's been an enjoyable ride, to say the least," said US women's coach Jack Bauerle.

As usual, the US males grabbed most of the heavy metal, winning 18 medals, 10 of them gold, capping the week with a three-second victory over the Russians in the 400-meter medley relay. No surprise there, not since the Americans had the world record-holder in every stroke but freestyle.

But when Phelps began the week by blowing up in the 400 freestyle heats, it was reveille for the rest of the Athens veterans, who came here intent on a reprise of last summer's gold rush at Olympus. ''That was the best thing for Michael and the team," said men's coach Dave Salo. ''It meant the other guys had to step up and not rely on Mike to do everything."

So Aaron Peirsol pulled off another 100-200 double in the backstroke, lowering his world mark to 1 minute 54.66 seconds in the longer race. Brendan Hansen won the 100 and breaststroke, the first American to do it at a global meet. And Ian Crocker retained his title in the 100 butterfly, chopping down his own record to 50.40. ''I want to be the first under 49," the man from Maine declared.

Not that Phelps didn't do his share of the lifting. He won the 200 freestyle and 200 individual medley and led off both winning freestyle relays. But he flopped in the 400 free (18th in the heats), was seventh in the 100 free, and was beaten soundly by Crocker in the 100 fly, which Phelps won in Athens.

It was unrealistic to expect that Phelps would match his six golds and two bronzes from Olympus, especially since he skipped two events (the 200 fly and 400 IM) that he won there. It may also have been useful for him to take a few beatings at a post-Games worlds. ''It's very good for him to be in a situation where he's not the top dog," said his coach Bob Bowman. ''It keeps people hungry."

A new quadrennium is underway with a new competitive landscape. The last one was a disaster for the Australian women, who didn't win a race at the 2003 meet in Barcelona. Here they won 10, by far their most ever, including last night's 50 freestyle (Lisbeth Lenton) and 50 breaststroke (Jade Edmistone in a world-record 30.45), and were jobbed out of an 11th when officials missed an obvious (on slow-motion replay) one-handed touch that enabled Poland's Otylia Jedrzejczak to beat Jessicah Schipper in the 200 butterfly.

''They really knocked it out," said Bauerle, whose young squad won 14 medals (five of them gold) to finish one behind the Aussies. ''They covered the meet extremely well. We knew what we were getting into."

Still, the US held its own with a squad that included nine teenagers. Besides two individual golds from 16-year-old Katie Hoff, whose victory in last night's 400 IM (in a meet-record 4:36.07) was the first by an American since Tracy Caulkins in 1978, there were two golds from 17-year-old Kate Ziegler in the 800 and 1,500 freestyles and a couple of breaststroke silvers from 18-year-old Jessica Hardy, who set a world record in the 100 breast (1:06.20) in the semis. ''It's been a coming-out party for a lot of them," observed Bauerle.

The coming-out party everyone is waiting for is from the Chinese, who won only five medals here, one less than Phelps. ''We know they've been good," says Salo. ''We know they have the athletes. Then they swim some results where you say, these don't belong."

Since 1994, when they won 19 medals with a team that was later believed to have been doped, the Chinese women have been third behind the US and Australia and their men have been nowhere. If the hosts want to top the overall medal table at the 2008 Olympics, they'll need to do it in the multiple-medal sports like swimming and track and field.

Odds are, the Chinese will wait until the next global meet in 2007 in Melbourne to show their hand, if then. ''It's always going to raise suspicions when we go into Beijing and they haven't done anything for three years and all of a sudden you've got names that we've never heard of showing up in the finals," says Salo. ''It's discouraging. Not knowing is what's frustrating for everybody."

This meet was the first class reunion since Athens. Beijing is still three summers away. ''The only real measure you can use is the Olympic Games," says Australian head coach Alan Thompson. ''That's where everyone comes to play."