New marks suit Phelps, Hoff
OMAHA - This will not be a week of victory laps for him and Michael Phelps acknowledged that even before he pulled on his bodysuit. "Nothing is a lock," the world's best swimmer said before the US Olympic trials began here yesterday at the Qwest Center. "Anything can happen."
Phelps may well qualify for Beijing in a dozen events, if he cares to swim everything he's entered. But he's going to have to earn it. Last night, in an event that Phelps won by more than three seconds at the Athens Games, he had to set a world record just to make the team.
"One of the most painful races of my life," Phelps said, after he'd broken his own mark in the 400-meter individual medley by nearly a second in 4:05.25, but had to bust a gut to finish ahead of Ryan Lochte (4:06.08), who also was under the old record of 4:06.22 that Phelps set last year. "I left everything in the pool."
That's going to be the only way to make it to Beijing in a year when Speedo's LZR Racer supersuit has turned mortals into demigods. Katie Hoff chopped more than three-tenths of a second off Stephanie Rice's world record in the women's 400 IM and still had to push herself to hold off runner-up Elizabeth Beisel, the 15-year-old Rhode Islander who hadn't even dreamed of making the team in that event until recently.
"Absolutely not," declared Beisel, who lives in Saunderstown and competes for the Bluefish Swim Club in Attleboro. "I would have never thought I had a chance to make it in the 400 IM. Oh, my God, this is awesome!"
Beisel had figured her best chance was in the 200 backstroke, but after she'd dropped a dozen seconds in the IM this year, she suddenly was in the mix. That's how it's been going all over the planet in the Olympic season and how it's going to be here for another seven days. "Go big or go home," said Lochte.
The 2004 calculator now seems like a something from a 19th-century curiosity shop. Harvard cocaptain Sam Wollner finished 21st in the 400 freestyle heats yesterday morning. Four years ago, his 3:55.40 would have been good enough to make the finals.
That's one reason why Erik Vendt, who'd won silver in the 400 IM at the last two Games, opted out of the event here. His signature race is the 1,500 free, where the North Easton native is the best man in the world this year. The 400 free figured to be a better set-up for him. Still, it was odd for him to watch the 400 IM prelims go on without him.
"I was warming up and I looked at the times and splits on TV," he said. "Then I said, 'Erik, you're not swimming this race. Forget about it.' "
His chances actually seemed more favorable in the 400 free, which shaped up as a four-man race among Vendt, two-time Olympic medalist Klete Keller, Peter Vanderkaay, and Larsen Jensen. Even then, it took an American record (3:43.53) to win it and it was Larsen, who'd been third in the prelims, who pulled it off by two-tenths ahead of Vanderkaay.
"I knew it was going to be that fast and I knew it was going to be that close," said Vendt, who missed the team by less than two tenths in 3:43.92. "If you had told me last year that 3:43 wouldn't make the team, I would have laughed in your face."
Four years ago, that time would have won Vendt a medal at the Games. Now, it gets him a pat on the back. Four years ago in Long Beach, Phelps won the 400 IM by more than five seconds in 4:08.41. Last night, that wouldn't have come close to making the team.
Everyone knew that Lochte was going to push Phelps hard. But nobody in the building figured that he'd be within two-hundredths of a second of him coming into the freestyle leg. In the final 25 meters, Phelps found his overdrive gear and won by roughly eight-tenths of a second, but the effort left him with barely enough energy to celebrate his world mark.
It was a marvelous race to kick off the trials, even for those who were left in the backwash. "I'm a swimming fan as much as I am a swimmer," said Robert Margalis, who was more than seven seconds behind in third place. "That was absolutely incredible. I'd be surprised if I could compete against that. It was a fun thing to be a part of."
For Phelps, it was a mighty labor. If he wants to, he could put himself through the grinder twice today, in the prelims of the 200 free and the 100-meter backstroke. Odds are he'll just do the freestyle, since it also qualifies him in the 800 relay, rather than spread himself as thin as his LZR. Nothing here is a lock this week, even for a man who swims like a shark. 