For the record

You need have just passing interest in swimming to know the significance of this comment. I did my best, said Milorad Cavic on Saturday,he did something huge, after Michael Phelps beat him to gold in the 100m butterfly at the world championships in Rome. He clocked 49.82 seconds,snipping 0.19 seconds off the record Cavic had set the day earlier. The Cavic-Phelps rivalry is one of the biggest in sport today,and the Serb had been smarting since Phelps took the gold from him last year at the Beijing Olympics. Cavic continued to put it down to faulty timing the difference was 0.01 seconds,and taunted Phelps last week that hed buy him a superior swimsuit.

That suit reference was handy,because at a time when swimming gear is threatening to become the bigger story than the races themselves,Phelpss performance and the drama of the rivalry have returned sport to the big question: is Phelps the greatest sportsperson of our time? At the 2008 Olympics,he made good on his candidacy to that claim by taking eight golds. By the time he was done at Beijing he said hed used up every bit of reserve,and would soon go back to training to shoot for new,bigger challenges. At Rome,he has shown what that could be.

The greatest sportspersons win that reputation by doing two things: performing better and more variedly than anyone of their time or before,and by raising the profile of their discipline. On each count,Phelps clears the bar. At a time when technology and performance are being carefully untangled in determining whats legit in swimming,Phelps is making a dramatic case for himself and his ambition.