"Coming into tonight, I said, 'I'm just going to go for it and whatever happens, happens,' " Phelps said. "I put it all in the first 150 and tried to get into as much open water as I can. And then come off the last wall and hang on."
Said Bowman: "He told me before the race, 'I'm going to step on it in the third 50 and not back off. I said, 'Go for it.' When he has a plan, you just always go with it. He knows what he's doing."
Bowman and Phelps exchanged a warm embrace in the mixed zone where swimmers meet with the media. It has been a tumultuous 24 hours for the two of them after Phelps lost the race to Biedermann, who wore one of the newest high-tech suits.
The loss prompted Bowman to threaten to keep Phelps out of international meets until the suit controversy is resolved. FINA has issued rules limiting the size of the swimsuits and the material, confining it to textile, although it has not yet issued a definition of textile or a definitive timetable. The rules are to take effect in 2010.
But Bowman fears the uncertainty could ruin next season and disrupt not only Phelps, but also the rest of his program at North Baltimore Aquatic Club. He doesn't want to hear his swimmers talk about a "team next door" having kids wear the high-tech Jaked suits.
"I would just like to know this is going to happen before the middle of next year," he said of FINA's implementing the new rules. "Then we wait until April and they say, 'No, it's going to be August.' By the time that occurs, we're pretty far down the road trying to get ready for meets."
Phelps might be the trump card in the controversy. Bowman said they are thinking of entering Phelps in World Cup meets this fall in Stockholm and Berlin. Continued FINA delay regarding the banned suits could put that on hold, as well as Phelps' participation in the much-anticipated Duel in the Pool in England in December.
USA Swimming general manager Mark Schubert met with a top FINA official Wednesday and discussed the timetable.
"He said to trust him that this would be done well before May," Schubert said of FINA's Cornel Marculescu, the organization's executive director. "He said that he hoped I would talk to Michael and assure him the issue would be settled."
Bowman revealed he had been tempted to have Phelps try a high-tech suit in practice.
But there is always the problem of putting the hand in the cookie jar.
