Jeah, that's a world record

SHANGHAI -- There's a reason high-school gym coaches everywhere are always preaching to get your backside in the gym, telling you that hard work really does pay off, that the people who are most prepared end up winning.

It's true.

Ryan Lochte defeated Michael Phelps in the 200-meter individual medley Thursday night in a thrilling race, setting the first world record of the 2011 world championships -- the first world record in a 50-meter pool since the plastic-suit era ended.

Lochte was timed in 1:54 flat, Phelps in 1:54.16. Laszlo Cseh of Hungary, who is a terrific swimmer but has the misfortune of being on the world stage during the same years as Phelps and Lochte, finished third, in 1:57.69.

Lochte had held the previous world record, 1:54:10, set at the 2009 worlds in Rome.

"The only word to describe that race is, jeah!" Lochte said after Thursday's race, which is Lochte-speak for "everything is really, really cool," which for him right now it assuredly is.

He has this week defeated Phelps twice, in the 200 IM and in the 200 free. Over the last year, Lochte has worked out like a fiend. Phelps has only in the past few months started to apply himself again.

To the uninitiated, 16-hundredths of a second may seem like a cruel differentiator. But on such small slices do world records, and championships, rest. At this level, swimming is that exact.

The difference between the two Thursday was rooted in the work each had put in beforehand.

Lochte and Phelps are good friends. Both savor winning. Neither likes to lose, and that's putting it mildly. What we have now is a year in which both have vowed to get their respective backsides into the gym, and the pool, in preparation for London.

Those 2012 Games should thus be an amazing show.

Because Thursday night sure was.

"I wanted to do something that everyone thought wasn't possible since they banned those suits." Lochte said. "Everyone thought a world record would never get touched again. I just wanted to show everyone that can happen. That's why we have records. They're meant to get broken.

"All that hard work I've done this year, and dedication. It definitely paid off."

The fiasco that was the Rome 2009 world championships -- where 43 world records were broken, because of the plastic suits -- was underscored by the specialness of the occasion Thursday. FINA, swimming's worldwide governing body, hauled out a sponsor-plastered backdrop for photo ops at Lochte's news conference; that sort of thing didn't happen in Rome. Why would it? 43 records -- it got to be silly.

To break a world record, said Nathan Adrian, the best American sprinter, "It takes something spectacular, not just great, and Ryan's got it."

Lochte's coach, Gregg Troy, wryly noted that Lochte's effort was "not a perfect swim but probably pretty good for him."

Lochte's final 15 meters in particular, and now Troy was being dead serious, were superb.

He added, referring to Lochte and Phelps, "I think you watched the two best IM swimmers ever. You got a real treat. By the same token," and you would expect a coach to say this, because there's always room for improvement, particularly heading into an Olympic year, and mindful always that Phelps is nearby, "I'm not real pleased with Ryan's performance -- it could be better."

Troy added, "I don't know that we're going to call a few one-hundredths of a second surpassing Michael Phelps but it puts us in a good lead." That said: "There is absolutely no doubt in my mind Michael is going to be at his peak next year."

Before Lochte took the record in 2009, the previous eight 200 IM world records were held by Phelps, dating all the way back to 2003.

As he has grown up, Phelps has become increasingly gracious with that portion of his role that asks him to stop in what's called the "mixed zone," the alley just off the pool deck where reporters wait to talk to swimmers.

He was frustrated enough by the loss that he blew through the zone, then just moments later realized his mistake and issued through a USA Swimming spokeswoman a few words expressing his emotions. He started a news conference later in the evening by apologizing for not stopping in the zone.

He also said, "There's a lot of frustration going through my head. This is going to help me through the tough months of training through the next year."

Phelps' time Thursday is actually seven-hundredths faster than he went in winning gold in Beijing in 2008 -- and, again, he is nowhere near 2008 shape, testament if nothing else to the force of his competitive drive and sheer will.

"I thought I had it [won] with the last stroke," Phelps said. "I felt myself gaining, gaining, gaining," and the stat sheet shows that indeed Phelps swam the last 50 meters faster than Lochte, 27.36 to 27.49.

Phelps was faster on the opening leg, the butterfly, too. But Lochte won the middle two legs, the back and breast.

Bob Bowman, Phelps' coach, said of the race: "It's the small things. I thought [Phelps] lost the race on the last stroke of breaststroke. He totally lost his momentum going into the wall. That's a pretty small thing. But that's what you get when swim every day. You get the sense of that. It becomes, like, innate. He's just trying to invent it right here.

"He's really good, and he kind of remembers what it's like, but it's just not exactly right."

Behind the scenes this week, Phelps said, he and others knew it was going to take a world record to win this race. "It says something that we're still able to do those times," even in textile-only suits, Phelps observed.

Lochte, who had a banner 2010 and is now having an arguably better 2011, "has done all the little small things right," Phelps said, adding, "He has improved his underwaters a ton. he has more comfortable speed than what he had before.

"He is super-focused right now and you can see that. He is putting the races together that are helping him win. To be honest, he is more prepared. Races are always won, things are always won, by people who are most prepared."

No doubt - Phelps wins 200 fly

SHANGHAI -- To watch Michael Phelps swim the butterfly is to watch an artist. We just don't typically think of sports that way. But it's so. His stroke is beautifully fluid. It's also infused with deep family and personal meaning. The 200 fly is the race that was meant for his sister Whitney's 1996 Olympic dreams; injury stopped her short. He took over and the rest is history.

For nine straight years the man did not lose even a single 200 fly. Then, this spring, he lost three in a row, including two to China's Wu Peng, who lined up in the lane next to him Wednesday night here at swimming's world championships.

Doubters -- shame on you.

Phelps won his fifth world title in the 200 fly since 2001, and in convincing fashion, timed in 1:53.34. Japan's Takeshi Matsuda, the bronze medalist at the 2008 Beijing Games, came in second, in 1:54.01. Wu finished third, in 1:54.67.

In a sign of this country's growing strength in the sport, another Chinese, Chen Yin, took fourth, in 1:55 flat.

One night after coming up just short in the 200 free, a half-second or so behind Ryan Lochte in the 200 freestyle, Phelps not only asserted his dominance in the fly but -- in a second swim Wednesday evening -- looked sharp in qualifying, along with Lochte, for the finals of the 200 individual medley.

In the 200 fly, after he touched the final wall and looked up at the scoreboard, Phelps signaled with his right index finger -- still No. 1. Over in the stands, in another familiar scene, his mom, Debbie, and his other sister, Hilary, hugged each other.

The five titles since 2001 account for every world championships except for 2005 in Montreal; Phelps didn't swim the 200 fly there, he and his longtime coach and mentor Bob Bowman were experimenting with the 400 free, which turned out to be a bust, Phelps not even qualifying for the finals. "We were being dumb," Bowman said.

Throughout the years, Phelps has had an uncanny ability to predict his finishing times in specialties such as the 200 fly; it's like he's a human stopwatch. Talking late Wednesday evening with a handful of reporters, he said he had before coming to Shanghai written down in his journal predictions for the races here. The prediction for the 200 fly: 1:53-low, and that's what I was."

He went on, "I'm a second and a half faster than last year and I feel like I'm kind of getting back. I felt like my old self the last 100 of that race. especially over the last 25. I didn't feel like i was dying, [didn't] feel like i could barely get my arms out of the water, like there was a piano on my back.

"I felt like i was swimming for a whole 200 meters. It felt good."

It did him good, too, Bowman said.

"This one's good," Bowman said. "He needs a little balance. We need a little pat on the back."

"Weeeee I won one!" Phelps posted to his Twitter feed.

He was more elaborate at a news conference: "Having a number of defeats this year was extremely frustrating for me. I didn't like the feeling. I kind of wanted to have the feeling of winning the race again. It feels good to win a race."

A few minutes after he won, Phelps was hooked up for an appearance on NBC's "Today" show. Shanghai is precisely 12 hours ahead of New York; 8:35 p.m. here was 8:35 a.m. there, a just-right slot for Phelps to come on as part of the network's Olympic one-year-to-go show; the opening ceremony of the London Games will be on July 27, 2012.

Sometimes, it seems, things are just meant to be.

Throughout this week, Phelps has made plain that he is not in tip-top shape, at least not yet, which of course makes the win Wednesday all the more remarkable.

Phelps has also made it clear that he has seen the light -- that after months and months of sorta-kinda working out, he needs to really get after it.

If you put in the work, Phelps has said here a number of times, you actually get results.

The trigger, Bowman said Wednesday, was that first loss in the 200 fly -- after the nine years of wins -- back in April in Ann Arbor, to Wu.

"We were both very upset by that," Bowman said.

"That has sort of been my bread-and-butter event, my family's bread-and-butter event," Phelps said. To be able to get it back and keep it, I know what I have to do to be able to be where I want to be.

"I'm headed in the right direction," the exact same words he used the night before, when he came in second to Lochte, and maybe now many more people truly will believe him, because they should. He added, "I'm very pleased."

Daniel Langinbelik's 1:12.52

SHANGHAI -- What 15-year-old Daniel Langinbelik accomplished here Wednesday is, in its way, every bit as great as what Ryan Lochte or Michael Phelps or any other champion did, or will do, at the 2011 swimming world championships. Maybe, to be honest, more.

They ran 14 heats Wednesday morning of men's 100-meter freestyle. Daniel was entered in the very first of those 14. He got up on the blocks. The whistle blew. He didn't false start. He not only finished the two laps in the Olympic-sized pool -- he shaved some seven seconds off his previous best time, touching in 1:12.52, a fantastic display of courage and tenacity.

Afterward, Daniel couldn't believe a journalist wanted to talk to him. To begin, he said, he's shy. Moreover, he said, "I'm only in the ninth grade." Asked about the race, he did allow, "I'm happy."

Then, with the help of his coach, who arrived on the scene, he opened up. True, Daniel is only in the ninth grade. Beyond which, he turned 15 not even two weeks ago -- and until this week, he had never seen an escalator, or an elevator, or stayed in a hotel, or been on an airplane. Well, he might have seen them on television or in the movies but never himself experienced them in the Marshall Islands, which are way out there in the midst of the Pacific Ocean, where he lives.

There's always a world of difference at every championships between the stars, who justifiably get the headlines, and the swimmers who populate the early-morning heat sheets. Nowhere is that difference more pronounced than the 100-meter free, because freestyle is the easiest stroke to teach, no matter where in the world you might be.

Daniel's time, 1:12.52, ended up being the 103rd best time of the 105 guys who finished the race, a full 39.11 seconds behind the day's top qualifier, William Meynard of France, who touched in 48.14.

In this instance, it only proves the point.

FINA, swimming's world governing body, understandably has an interest in promoting the sport anywhere and everywhere. So it underwrites a program to bring such swimmers to championship and other meets. This does two things. One, athletes get to compete against their peers, which should make them all better. Two, it promotes what's called "universality," a term of Olympic jargon that means, more or less, we're all in this together.

The Marshall Islands are but dots on the map of the Pacific. The islands' Olympic committee wasn't even created until 2001; the International Olympic Committee took another five years to then formally recognize it. The Marshall Islands swim team here numbers four -- three swimmers and a coach, Amy LaCost, 43, a merchant ship captain, who swam at Kankakee (Ill.) High School and is a Texas A&M grad.

The other two swimmers on the team -- Giordan Harris, 18, and Ann-Marie Hepler, 15 -- are, in comparison to Daniel, grizzled veterans. Giordan and Ann-Marie, who compete in both butterfly and freestyle events, have been swimming since each was 3 years old; both, for instance, swam at the short-course world championships in Dubai last December.

Daniel just started swimming a couple years ago, and then because some friends were at the pool.

There is a pool on Ebeye Island, with a population of about 15,000 people, where Daniel lives with his two brothers, a sister and his parents. He's the youngest of the family.

The pool is hardly the Olympic-sized 50 meters. It's 25 yards. Also, it's a salt-water pool. That's because the salt water comes from the ocean.

Once a week, they pump the water in from the sea. "So getting used to swimming in meters [as opposed to yards] and in fresh water, where you sink, is important to us," said LaCost, the coach.

It took a full two and a half days for LaCost and her crew to get to Shanghai from the islands, making airplane connections through Guam and then Japan. They're staying here at a Ramada, nothing particularly fancy. FINA is helping to underwrite the cost of the trip, about $14,000 in all.

They've seen some of the sights in Shanghai. To say it's a little different here than Ebeye would be the gentlest of understatements.

On Tuesday night, at the pool, Daniel watched Phelps and Lochte go head to head in the 200 free. He saw two French racers, Camille Lacourt and Jeremy Stravius, tie for the title in the 100 backstroke. He was thrilled by the action.

"He's going to go home and tell 10 to 20 kids what he has seen and everything he has experienced," LaCost said, beaming. "It's one thing when you're in the middle of practice and you're wondering what the pay-off for all that hard work is. Now he can see it, and now he can tell these other kids, and then maybe we can get them to come out and do this, too.

"That's what the investment is all about.," she said. "That's what all of this is all about.

"I couldn't be more proud of him. Just couldn't be more proud."

Lochte beats Phelps. Lesson: hard work pays off

SHANGHAI -- Coming into these 2011 swimming world championships, Michael Phelps observed that he had lacked motivation but had found it again. His coach, Bob Bowman, declared, "We did a year's worth of training in nine months. How that worked, we're going to find out -- shortly." It's not quite enough.

Ryan Lochte beat Phelps in the 200-meter freestyle Tuesday night by about a half-second. Lochte is a major talent in his own right, and he deserved this victory, absolutely deserved it, because as he said at a news conference afterward, "All that hard work that I've done actually paid off."

There's a lot of racing left at these championships -- Lochte and Phelps, who are good friends, will square off again in the 200 individual medley -- and if Lochte ultimately emerges the big winner here, it means the mainstream press is going to have a big time over the next year, in the lead-up to the London 2012 Olympics, proclaiming the emergence of The Big New American Swim Star, while wondering if Phelps' star is diminishing, if not diminished.

Not so fast.

Again, Lochte is an incredible talent as well as a great personality. He showed up behind the blocks Tuesday night wearing his beloved shiny green high-top sneakers. Coming off the medals stand, he sported a diamond grille in his teeth. This year, he's favoring a new shorter haircut instead of the longer curly locks he used to sport.

Lochte likes to say, "Jeah!" which is his way of saying he likes something a lot. He's great with kids. He's genuinely funny and humble and USA Swimming loves to use him in a variety of its promotions.

He and Phelps are such pals that Phelps, who is notoriously anti-social in the ready room before races, actually will talk to Lochte there. Indeed, before this 200 free Phelps had his music up so loud -- it's always Lil Wayne or Young Jeezy -- that he and Lochte were singing aloud together to the music. Way before they got there, Lochte had posted to his Twitter feed, "Me and @MichaelPhelps gotta eat these swimmers like Anthony Hopkins tonite. Let's go #USA, #JEAH"

All of that.

Lochte won gold in the 200 backstroke in Beijing in 2008 and bronze, behind Phelps, in both the 200 and 400 IMs. They teamed up to help win gold in the 800 Beijing free relay.

Lochte is a way better athlete now than in 2008, a "completely different" swimmer, he said Tuesday, "a lot stronger" and "a lot smarter," a guy who eats better and trains like he wants to win.

This, though, is a constant: He is one of the very few swimmers who has no fear of racing Phelps. Never has. As he put it simply Tuesday night, "We both want to win."

For sure, Phelps' amazing career has been marked not just by his desire to win but by an almost pathological revulsion to losing.

As good as Lochte is, what's now at issue is that Phelps is back in the game, and for real. He said late Tuesday night, "I'm happy to be back in the water again," adding, "I probably haven't had that feeling since '08."

So here's the deal, and you can bet both swimmers and their camps know it:

Lochte is in great shape. Phelps is not.

Even so, over the final 50 meters, Phelps -- who has always been a great closer -- swam faster than Lochte. Phelps went 26.66. Lochte went 26.95.

Imagine if Phelps was in better shape and was able to get over on his turns, and kick out better on those turns -- points that Bowman noted afterward. These technical points may seem like swim geek stuff. They're not. They're power points that win races.

Imagine, too, if Phelps was in better shape and able to carry the race through all four laps the way he wanted. He had said beforehand that the guy who flipped first at the third turn was going to win. Phelps flipped first at the first and second turns but then the race got away from him; he was third at 150; Lochte flipped first at that third turn.

The final scoreboard: Lochte 1:44.44, Phelps 1:44.79.

For Phelps to be back down in the 44s, though -- as Bowman put it, "The year I've had -- thank you. We're very happy with that."

There's this, too:

The 200 free has been one of Phelps' signature races. When Australia's Ian Thorpe set the world record in the event at the 2001 worlds, 1:44.06, it was thought unapproachable -- until Phelps broke it six years later, at the 2007 worlds, going 1:43.86.

At the 2008 Games, Phelps then lowered the mark to 1:42.96.

At the 2009 worlds in Rome, amid the plastic-suit craziness, Germany's Paul Biedermann not only beat Phelps -- Phelps has called it a "beat-down" -- but took the record, lowering it to 1:42 flat.

That mark is totally suspect, though Phelps has never said so.

Phelps on Tuesday beat Biedermann, who finished third, in 1:44.88, almost three seconds back of that 2009 time. "Yeah, the suits helped," Biedermann said at a news conference after racing Tuesday.

Phelps, who later Tuesday night had to swim hard to qualify for the finals of the 200 fly, said, referring to the 200 free, "With the training that has happened over the last six to eight months, that's all I had in the tank. I would have loved to win. I think this is something that is going to help me, a lot, over the next year."

He also said, "I think I know where I can get and what it takes to get back there. I know I can go faster than that. I know for sure I can go faster than that. That's not even a question. Like I said, I am pleased with where that is now.

"But that time won't win a gold medal next year."

Which, after all, is the end game.

The tears of a worthy champion

SHANGHAI -- Three days before, an enormous bomb had gone off in central Oslo, rocking government offices, killing seven people. Shortly thereafter, the massacre began on a nearby island called Utoya. Children and teenagers, at a summer camp, gunned down indiscriminately, dozens and dozens murdered, and for what? Alexander Dale Oen felt the full enormity of his country's sorrow.

Too, he saw a path to a sliver of hope.

He was the first from Norway to win an Olympic medal in swimming. He had won silver in Beijing three years before in the 100-meter breaststroke. Thus the possibility. If he could hold himself together here in Shanghai, at the 2011 swimming world championships -- if he could win here, perhaps such a victory could, in its way, symbolize the resolve of a people going forward.

There are those who say it's foolish to expect this sort of thing from sport.

Yet, time and again, we see it is indeed the case, that sport offers a way to express these emotions, perhaps a way like no other way.

It is like this all over our world.

After the terror attacks of 9/11 nearly ten years ago, when baseball and football games resumed, it felt like life might somehow return to normal in the United States.  Five months later, at the opening ceremony of the 2002 Salt Lake Games, the march into Olympic Stadium of the tattered Ground Zero flag simultaneously paid tribute to those who were lost and all that was yet to come.

This summer, as the women's soccer World Cup played out in Germany, the Japanese team would unfurl a banner that thanked fans around the world for support in the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake, tsunami and radiation disaster.

The Japanese team's victory over the Americans in the World Cup final "touched people's hearts and gave bright hope for society," the country's chief cabinet secretary, Yukio Edano, has said, according to a story in The Japan Times reporting that the team is up for one of the nation's most prestigious tributes, the People's Honor Award.

Here in China, Dale Oen had been asked repeatedly about the attacks back home as he made his way through the rounds of the 100 breaststroke.

To keep up with developments back home, the Norwegian team had been watching TV at their hotel here. "It's unbelievable," Dale Oen told the Associated Press after his prelim swim. "We need to stay together now in Norway and we here just need to try to do the best we can." At that, the wire service reported, he seemed on the verge of tears, and had to walk away.

The 100 lasts two laps. It goes fast,  about or even under a minute.

In the final here Monday night, Dale Oen built a big lead on the first lap, then swam steady after the turn. He would not be caught. He won Norway's first swimming world championships gold medal.

He finished in 58.71 seconds, the first man to go under 59  seconds in the textile-only suits mandated by FINA, swimming's worldwide governing body, since the start of 2010.

Italy's Fabio Scozzoli finished second, in 59.42. South Africa's Cameron van der Burgh touched third, in 59.49. Olympic champion Kosuke Kitajima of Japan finished fourth; the defending world champion, Brenton Rickard of Australia, fifth.

After touching the final wall, still in the water, Dale Oen pointed to the Norwegian flag on his cap. He rose up and flexed his biceps. Look, he seemed to say to his country -- we can still be strong.

In such strength, though, there is always hidden pain.

And, at last, Dale Oen let it show.

On the medals stand, as the last notes of his country's national anthem sounded, he finally gave in.

There were tears in his eyes -- the tears he'd had to fight back just to keep himself going.

He reached up and, quickly, gently, wiped them away.

He drew a breath and composed himself. The moment passed. It was all he would allow himself.

A few minutes later, he appeared at the traditional winners' news conference, black tape wrapped around the left sleeve of his white T-shirt.

"I guess," he said, "I was racing a little bit more with my heart today than I was technically."

David Boudia's history-making platform silver

SHANGHAI -- Any championship athlete knows that delivering peak performance is about achieving a state of calm excitement. That is, it's simply telling your body to do what you know it can do, because you've done it thousands of times before in practice. The trick is the "simply" part. If it really was so simple, everyone could do it. It's not, of course, and that's what separates champions from the rest of us. That's particularly the case in a sport such as diving, and all the more so in platform diving, where you throw your body into the air from a ledge 10 meters, or roughly 30 feet, up.

The moment of championship calm and grace that everyone knew David Boudia had in him finally arrived Saturday in Shanghai. He absolutely nailed the fifth of sixth dives in his program. That propelled him up the leader board, all the way up to second. But he didn't get all caught up in the moment. He thought, oh, good. Then he went out and hit his last dive, too.

David Boudia's silver turned out to be the first medal won by an American male in 25 years at the FINA world championships. No American had won on the 10-meter board since 1986, when Greg Louganis won gold and Bruce Kimball bronze.

China's Qui Bo won gold, with 585.45 points. Boudia finished with 544.25. Germany's Sascha Klein was third, with 534.5. American Nick McCrory finished sixth, with 501.65.

Louganis, in an e-mail, wrote that he had challenged Boudia last year to "leave the pack," adding, "he is now putting that belief in himself to do just that." Louganis also wrote that he was "so proud" and predicted Boudia would have "great opportunities ahead."

Overall, there were 10 gold medals up for grabs in the diving events here in Shanghai.

The Chinese won all 10.

Obviously, they dominate the sport.

Next year, at the London Olympics, they're going to win most of the medals. That's so predictable it's even now all but fact.

Nonetheless, there's opportunity. Intriguingly, the Chinese are worried. Witness this revealing comment Sunday in the English-language China Daily newspaper from Zhou Jihong, the Chinese dive team leader:

"I am really happy to achieve that sweep but I still feel worried. Our opponents have become stronger in technique. We have to toughen up mentally."

One of the reasons they are worried is that David Boudia won silver. That's legitimately fact, too.

The Americans haven't won an Olympic medal since Laura Wilkinson, on the platform in Sydney in 2000. Even so, they were in the hunt here in several disciplines -- but only Boudia, on the final day of the diving competition, broke through.

To see the arc of Boudia's career is to witness steady progression and maturity. It's not unexpected. He has been diving for a long time now. He's now 22 -- and, at Purdue, was named the 2011 Big Ten athlete of the year.

Got that, all you football studs? David Boudia is the Big Ten man of the year.

Boudia finished 23rd in 2007 on the platform at the 2007 world championships; in 2009, he finished sixth.

At the 2007 and 2009 worlds, respectively, he won bronze and silver in the synchronized 10-meter events. At the 2008 FINA World Cup, he won bronze.

He came to these 2011 worlds with his coach, Adam Soldati, mindful that the ability to compete at an occasion such as the world championships can be viewed one of two ways.

You can graft it with all kinds of artificial pressure.

Or -- both Soldati and Boudia are animated by a solid Christian faith -- you can view the worlds as a gift, a chance "to feel alive to feel awesome moments," as Soldati put it.

Soldati also likes to say that the point of diving is to hit it, not to miss it.

That fifth dive, a back 3 1/2 pike, earned Boudia 9.5s from all seven judges.

"Once the competition started," Boudia said, "I've never felt so relaxed in my entire life. Sitting with Adam, we were just joking around like we do in practice. We didn't make a big deal like this was the world championships or anything. I didn't make a big deal of anything. I took it one thing at a time. I didn't get ahead of myself. I didn't get caught up in the environment. It was cool.

"… After that fifth round, I was excited but immediately I hit that switch. I thought, I have one more dive. I thought, 'You hit that great dive but you have more to go. So let's go.' "

He followed up with a rock-steady back 2 1/2 with 2 1/2 twists. You dive to hit it, not miss it.

David Boudia has been on the international circuit since he was 15. These championships, he said, were the first when he had the perspective to look around  the pool deck and see how anxious so many of his other competitors could be, and for what?

"I could see how nervous they were. I could tell when they were diving if they were being cautious. When I was in competition, even in synchro, I could see how they were nervous. I was, like, why do you need to get so nervous? It was like an epiphany. After seven years of competition on the world stage, I controlled my body and it was -- it was like amazing."

Asked if he thought that bodes well for next year, he smiled a big smile, and said with an indisputable sense of calm excitement, "Absolutely."

No 2011 magic for U.S. men's 400 freestyle relay team

SHANGHAI-- Three years ago, in Beijing, the American men won a relay race that still gives you shivers when you watch it. Who can forget Jason Lezak's out-of-body swim that clinched the gold medal? Two years ago, at the world championships in Rome, the American men again willed their way to victory in the 400-meter freestyle relay.

The magic came to a sudden and dramatic stop Saturday night in Shanghai. The Americans didn't win the 400 free relay at the 2011 world championships. The Aussies did. The Americans didn't even come in second. The French did. The Americans came home third, and about the only consolation was that this wasn't the Olympics.

"We just talked about just not liking where we were all standing," Michael Phelps said after the American men had come off the medal stand with their bronze medals.

"Clearly everybody wants to win. And being able to pull out a medal is good. But we -- I think, as Americans want to win everything that we do. We want to be the best. That's all you can really say. We strive to be the best we can be. We all know we can be better than that."

This was a loss for the books. The Americans had won this race in 2005, 2007 and 2009 and of course at the 2008 Games.

This was, moreover, a race that underscored two particular facets of swimming that make it thoroughly compelling.

One relates to the sport as it is now around the world: A whole bunch of countries are really good. That means the U.S. team is clearly going to be challenged heading toward London and the 2012 Games. That challenge may yet prove constructive. Only time will tell.

Two is more particular to U.S. swimming. The culture of American swimming is not only to stress accountability but to accept and acknowledge defeat -- to be stand-up about it. American athletes in any number of other sports could learn a lot from the way U.S. swimmers handle losing.

"I was out too slow," Garrett Weber-Gale, who swam the second leg of Saturday's relay, said, adding a moment later, "Obviously a relay is four men but it's pretty embarrassing for me to go slow like that and I feel like, you know, I don't know the right word, but it's very disappointing for me to have such a slow leg and feel like it was my fault we did poorly.

"... Truly, I feel sick about it. I don't like it. Just have to work harder to be better next time."

Lezak, who swam third, said he didn't swim his best, either: "It takes 100 percent of a team to do their best splits to win nowadays. You can't go in there and have two guys swim great and two guys swim average and expect to win. That's what happened today. Unfortunately, I was one of the average guys out there."

The U.S. men's coach, Eddie Reese, said, "We usually swim our relays as well or better than we look like we should. This wasn't a very good relay for us."

Before the race, the focus had been on the French, Americans and Russians. The Americans had all those recent years of winning history; the Russians, after winning the relay at the 2003 worlds and then all but disappearing, had finished first at last year's European championships; the French, second.

The Australians were nobody's betting favorites. That said, Eamon Sullivan, the Aussies' anchor guy, was hardly a secret. He had gone a then-world record 47.05 in Beijing, at the Games.

The Aussies' lead-off guy Saturday turned out to be one James Magnussen. He is 19.

Magnussen promptly went 47.49 to put Australia in open water. The Aussies never relinquished the lead.

For comparison, in the 2008 Games, Phelps swam his opening leg in 47.51.

Asked late Saturday about swimming here against Phelps, Magnussen said, "No biggie."

Phelps had put the Americans in a solid second place at the end of his split, in 48.08.

They dropped to third in Weber-Gale's leg, fourth with Lezak; Nathan Adrian pulled the Americans back up to third with a 47.40 anchor.

Reese said, "We had splits that were not at all like we thought they would be. Michael's split was really good. He was out there where we thought he should be. Then we just -- our middle, Garrett and Jason -- when you get behind out in the middle of the pool, and you got real big guys making real big waves," meaning big guys from other teams, "it's not a safe place to be.

"It's why we usually we lead off with Michael. 'Cause Michael is super-solid. And he's one of the top two or three out there. I think he had the second-fastest 100 lead-off. We got what we wanted out of that."

The Aussies' winning time: 3:11 flat. The French -- 3:11.14. The U.S. -- 3:11.96.

As Phelps pointed out afterward, the 2011 American relay time was almost two and a half seconds slower than the winning U.S. 2009 relay time, 3:09.21.

There's a whole week of these world championships left -- a lot of racing. Big picture, now there will be a year to think about this loss.

"I mean, it's frustrating," Phelps said.

"... We know what we have to do to get back. We all said that. Standing up on the podium, it's clearly not the spot we want to be in. This is really going to be motivation.

"... It is a good thing it's not the Olympics. We have time to prepare and get ready and change some things. I think that's what we're all going to do. Because I don't think we like the feeling that we have right now."

The end nears for Phelps -- amid a new beginning

SHANGHAI -- Michael Phelps turned 26 a few weeks ago, at the end of June. He  can see the end of his competitive swimming career, in London, a year from now. The beginning of the end starts here, this week in Shanghai, at the world championships.

Maybe he wins the 100 and 200 butterflys, like he usually does, and maybe he wins back the 200 freestyle from Germany's Paul Biedermann. Maybe he out-duels fellow American Ryan Lochte in the 200 individual medley. Or maybe not. Whatever. This meet matters, of course, because it's the worlds, but at the same time it's a set-up for what matters more, and that's next July in London.

What matters most of all is that Phelps has, over the past several months, discovered anew the essence of what has stamped him as the greatest swimmer of all time.

To be a great swimmer you have to want to be a great swimmer.

Phelps wants it again. "I feel like my own self," he said.

At a jam-packed news conference here Saturday, so crowded that if it had been in the United States the fire marshals would have been on high alert, Phelps acknowledged he had basically played a lot of golf and not done a lot of committed swimming for a good chunk of time after the 2009 worlds in Rome.

Look -- who can blame the guy? How would you like to produce motivation after doing what nobody had done before, winning those eight gold medals at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing?

If you had 14 Olympic gold medals in your career, 16 Olympic medals overall, what would it take to get you out of bed in the morning to go swim in a cold pool?

"It didn't matter how much I wanted him to be there," Bowman said. "He had to want to be there."

The issue was when -- if -- that switch was going to go off.

It clicked several months back.

Phelps has been sitting for news conferences since he was 15; the 26-year-old who sat Saturday and answered questions for nearly 30 minutes proved thoughtful, reflective and mature, indeed.

This is the Michael Phelps his family and close friends know and appreciate; this was really him; he was genuine and forthright and sought to explain why, really why, it clicked and in that explanation he quite unintentionally underscored his extraordinary appeal -- and not just in the United States.

Phelps opened a Twitter-style account here in China just days ago. It's called Weibo here. As of Saturday, it already had 87,169 followers.

Here is the Phelps mantra, which he reiterated Saturday: If you work really hard at something, and don't let anyone tell you something is impossible, you can achieve anything.

What clicked, he made plain, is when he realized that all over again -- now as a grown man, and on his own terms.

"I mean, it was just taking charge of my own actions," Phelps said. "You know, just sort of deciding I wanted to do it for myself -- not Bob having to sort of twist my arm to get me in the pool.

"I know if I want to accomplish my goals, I have to do it myself.

"… For me to actually show up, to work out, I have to do it myself. I have to do it. Over the last six to eight months, that has been the case. I have been excited and happy to be in the pool …"

A few minutes later, he said, "This is just how it is. There are always going to be great times. There are going to be hard times. I haven't dealt with the hard times the last two years like I used to. They're under my belt now. I know what to expect if I don't train.

"… It's funny how when you do train, you do swim well. Who would have thought? It's that easy. All you have to do is train."

Bowman said, "Golf is not good for the 200 butterfly. We can definitively say that."

He also said, "We did a year's worth of training in nine months. How that worked -- we're going to find out -- shortly."

Racing gets underway Sunday with the 400-meter freestyle relay. U.S. men's coach Eddie Reese declined Saturday to say who would be swimming, and in what order; Phelps traditionally swims the lead-off leg. Phelps' first individual race final is likely to come Tuesday -- the 200 free.

"I'm excited," Michael Phelps said, "to get in the water."

A keen IOC mission statement

The Olympic movement is and always will be something of a contradiction in terms. It is not, purely speaking, a business. It is a club based in Switzerland that counts about 110 members; through secret votes, those members allocate a franchise that decamps to different cities around the world for a 17-day stay every other year. That description both accounts for and thoroughly ignores reality. The Olympic movement encompasses fantastic business attributes. Worldwide, it is a sponsor- and broadcast-driven commercial proposition now worth well over $1 billion annually. Moreover, a Games serves as the catalyst for infrastructure, development and, as is typical in the case of a Summer Olympics, urban renewal projects worth billions of dollars more.

Underpinning all of it is a philosophy that separates the movement from every other major sports concern. All other big-time sports exist for two reasons -- to crown champions and to make money. The Olympic movement is a non-profit enterprise animated by high-minded ideals.

How, then, would you set out to describe for a highly knowledgeable audience exactly where the Olympic movement is now, and where it's going?

That was the challenge facing the Olympic Games' executive director, Gilbert Felli, when he was asked to present a report to the just-concluded 123rd International Olympic Committee session in Durban, South Africa -- that is, to the members themselves.

Felli's 11-page report, now circulating more widely, makes for one of the most remarkably articulated mission statements ever drafted by or about the IOC. Each of the 11 pages is charged with a keen understanding of what the IOC is, what it's doing, why it's doing it and where it's heading.

Throughout, there are gems -- not only stuff that's straightforward but said straight-out, in the way such things need to be said, frankly. On page four, for instance, Felli notes, "To be appealing, the Games must be the prime event in young people's heads. Regular investments must be made in the way the event is staged, broadcast and shared through the various media platforms. The program must also evolve with time. A good example is the way new events have been recently added to the Sochi 2014 program," and that is a perfect example, the IOC adding slopestyle, among other events.

Historians studying the IOC in these early years of the 21st century may well turn to this document as a -- if not the -- basic marker. It's that good.

Because it's so good, I'm going to quote at length from what is entitled the "introduction" to the report. A big-picture overview, the "introduction" deservedly carries on for more than a full page in the document itself. Here goes:

"The Olympic Games are in constant evolution. Just like any child, they grow through several stages in life. As they become more mature, they adapt to an ever-evolving context, and present new, sometimes unexpected, challenges and opportunities. What is sure, though, is that the Olympic Games are continuing to be extremely healthy and successful. Their magic is now shared with more people than ever, while their staging has come out of difficult economic times with little impact.

"The IOC, together with its key partners and stakeholders, should take great pride in having consistently delivered a series of very successful Olympic Games, sometimes in very challenging circumstances. The IOC can also congratulate itself by offering the youth of the world a new, inspiring event: the Youth Olympic Games.

"The successful staging of two major events in 2010 [meaning the Vancouver Winter Games and the Singapore Youth Games] is no stroke of good fortune. It is the direct result of all the energy expended to develop new tools and processes, to establish strong but evolving partnerships with the organizers and to deliver a rich transfer of knowledge program.

"… [T]he reality of the Games has changed significantly. The Games inspire millions of athletes and even more fans across continents, cultures, ages or ethnic groups. They continue to break down barriers and bring people together. Today, the Games have really extended out of the competition venues and TV screens to play a much wider and more significant role than ever before. They now integrate new technologies to be shared with more people. They compete with more events and leisure activities. They involve more stakeholders and public partners who are all key players in the preparation and staging of the events. Much interest is at stake around the Games.

"The Games are also perceived differently by a number of our stakeholders. Public partners now perceive more fully the potential of the Games to change the face of a city, to inspire an entire nation, to upgrade the host city's public services or generate lasting legacies for host communities. With recent and current organizers, we see that the [magic] of the Games extends far beyond the field of play.

"We have also come to realize how thin the margin can be between success and failure. What sometimes looks very promising can easily turn into a sour situation to manage either for economic, political or other reasons often out of our reach and control. Hence the need to further develop our risk management approach, tailored to each and every Games context.

"The Games bring new challenges but also a wealth of opportunities. They force us not only to observe carefully the world around us and the various trends in leisure and physical activities, media consumption, public health or applied sustainability, but also to constantly innovate and challenge ourselves to optimize the product and experience. Such are the conditions for the Games to remain relevant and successful in the years to come."