BARCELONA, Spain - No event better framed the challengers Michael Phelps could face in the 2004 Olympics than the 400-meter individual medley, his last event here.
Phelps lowered his 3-month-old world record to 4 minutes, 9.09 seconds, claimed his third individual gold medal at the 10th FINA World Championships and the victory ceremony turned into a teen party.
On his right was the silver medalist, Laszlo Cseh of Hungary. He was timed in 4:10.79, less than a tenth of a second off Phelps' old world mark. Cseh won't turn 18 himself until December.
Phelps joked with the bronze medalist, Oussama Mellouli of Tunisia. Mellouli, the old man on the podium at 19, will be a sophomore at Southern California.
Instead of being the last event, the 400 IM would be the first for Phelps were he to tackle the same schedule of four individual events at the 2004 Olympics, along with three relays.
After his 13th and final race of this meet, an exhausted Phelps leaned his back against the pool wall and placed his right hand on the deck, steadying himself.
"Hopefully, that swim is going to go better for Michael at the beginning of the program in Athens than it will at the end here," said Bob Bowman, his coach. "To not only win the race, but break the record, I'm very proud.
"I really feel very good about the whole program, and how he stood up to every race. In every race that counted, he put forth a best time. It shows us that the program is do-able, and also how difficult winning four events is."
Yesterday began with the most psychologically difficult morning of Phelps' career.
One night after he was upset by American teammate Ian Crocker in the 100 butterfly, Phelps had preliminaries of the 400 IM. Fifty-seven minutes later, he swam the butterfly leg in the preliminaries of the medley relay.
The foursome of Randal Bal (Phelps' roommate here), Ed Moses, Phelps and Neil Walker won their heat in a meet-record 3:34.80, and they might have scared the world record if the American coaches hadn't warned them to avoid false starts.
That's what happened to the Australians in an earlier heat, so a funny thing happened to the two best swimmers in the world on the way to the medal stand at the climactic victory ceremony: Neither Phelps nor Ian Thorpe made it to the awards platform in the medley relay.
"Tragedy," is how Phelps described that tableau.
Ian Crocker cost Phelps two gold medals when he beat him in the 100 fly and bounced him off the American team that would swim in the final. Crocker bettered the world-record split that Phelps recorded last summer, and the Baltimorean would have been too tired to go that fast after a 400 IM final that left him drained.
Phelps' mother summed up her emotional investment in this meet.
"This has been marvelous," Debbie Phelps said, "but I feel like I need a vacation."
