ROME -- One high-speed collision in a warm-up at a historic indoor pool built under the orders of Mussolini could have undercut another collision of ego and talent: the showdown between Michael Phelps and Milorad Cavic in the 100-meter butterfly.
Who knew that blurry vision, an aching left shoulder and busted swim goggles after colliding hard with an Australian female sprinter would set the stage for what could have been Phelps' finest swim performance?
The much-hyped showdown between the Rodgers Forge native and Cavic delivered on Saturday night at the world championships, just as it did almost a year ago at the Olympics in Beijing when Phelps won the 100 fly by one-hundredth of a second.
Phelps defeated Cavic in an electric final, winning in a world-record 49.82 seconds. Cavic, the blunt-speaking Serb who was born and raised in Orange County, Calif., also went under the world mark, in 49.95. That was one of four world records on Day 7, bringing the total to 39 at this meet.
The amazing performances by Phelps, the winner of 14 Olympic gold medals, are many. But his longtime coach Bob Bowman flipped through the massive mental Rolodex and stopped right at 49.82.
"This is the best by far," Bowman said.
Phelps' actions supported those words. After touching first, he hopped up on the lane line and waved his arms, as if exhorting an already-loud crowd at the Foro Italico complex pool. He screamed and spit out water and tugged at his LZR Racer swimsuit, having reclaimed the world record from Cavic, who lowered it Friday in the semifinals.
That suit tug was a way of saying "Wear It" to Cavic. Cavic, an Arena man, had offered to buy Phelps one of the soon-to-be-banned polyurethane bodysuits, which only pushed all the right buttons for Phelps.
"I don't think I have ever been that emotional and fired up after a race," said Phelps, who ignored Cavic and swam by him to leave the pool without visible acknowledgment. "You saw by my reaction how much I wanted that. ... I think you saw me after the race pull my suit out. It doesn't matter what suit you wear, it matters how you train."
Phelps went out faster than in Beijing, in 23.36 in the opening 50 here, and was fourth at the turn. And, this time, he didn't need a desperate lunge of improvisation at the wall, winning by 0.13 in Rome.
