I won't spoil it for those who haven't seen the race yet, but basically let's say that Phelps>Polyurethane suits. Say what you want about his personality (and you all know I certainly say what I want about it), but when he show up and swims his balls off, kicks that Serbian's ass, and then does what he does after the race (Watch the interaction between Phelps and Cavic, it's awesome), you can help but pull for the guy.

He is the greatest. Hands down. It would be like Lance Armstrong winning 7 tours on a Schwinn, Prefontaine running in birkenstocks, or Jordan winning a dunk contest in blue jeans. Ok, maybe not that extreme, but he's putting on a hell of an impressive show.

That race was better than any swimming race I have seen except the 4x100 free relay in Beijing.

Everything Goblu said is correct.

Phelps truly is "the man!"

[This message has been edited by SpicewoodAg (edited 8/3/2009 9:50a).]

The Hype played it up, but the 100 Fly at Bejing was better in my opinion

Phelps is by far the greatest swimmer ever. Cavic should've asked him for his autograph.

Cavic should learn to keep his mout shut for sure. It wil be interesting to see if Phelps picks the 400 IM back up for London now that his his record has fallen.

Now that the new suits will be outlawed in 2010, unless they roll back the records, unlikely it will be touched

The scary thing is that Phelps is breaking records the year after the Olympics without the suits. People don't usually drop this much time in post olympic years, especially with how much time he's taken off. I'm getting the feeling that in some of these races (like the 100 fly), the only thing that is going to keep Phelps from dropping time is lack of competition. I halfway wish they'd keep the suits, so guys like Cavic could continue to push him to even faster times.

But the butterfly is different than backstroke and freestyle where a guy literally wants to just float on the surface. I think the suits in those two events give a bigger advantage than butterfly, but that is my opinion.

The suspense of the finish in the Beijing 100 fly was greater - but this one was better because I think more people doubted Phelps this time. Cavic showed phenomenal speed in prelims and semis. Cavic won the 50 fly. Phelps 200 fly was very strong but his 100 free and 200 free have been off. So could he beat a guy who was still chapped about losing by .01 in Beijing?

I think it is also clear that the polyurethene suits are faster than the coated lycra suits. Phelps clearly prefers legskins in fly - but he probably believed he needed every possible advantage to beat Cavic - so he wore the bodyskin.

I just gotta say watching Phelps power his way with his kick/legs the last 25M is awe-inspiring to me. He has a gear at the end of his fly races that no one on earth has.

Hey guys, I read this thread, and so decided to post a small article about it on my website. Just before you ask, gobluwolverine and I were talking about this, so he stole some of the OP from me, not the other way around.

http://www.swimcoachtools.com/PhelpsCavicWC2009.aspx

[This message has been edited by AGBlastoff (edited 8/3/2009 5:14p).]