Cavic Only .01 Seconds Slower

One-hundredth of a second. That's like a finger nail. That's .01 seconds for those of you who can't conceptualize "one-hundredth."

First, before I offer my opinion on what happened tonight, I knew this kid as Mike Cavic when he swam for California at the collegiate level (I went to Cal when Cavic was was a junior and senior and set Pac-10 and school records). But, at these Olympics (and I guess at the other international events he's swam in) he's known by his Serbian name, Milorad.

That's cool. You swim for the country of your parents, you gotta take the name that they gave you, I guess.

But the guy I knew as Mike almost made everyone take notice as the guy name Milorad. That one-hundredth of a second that I was referring too? That's how much best-swimmer-ever Michael Phelps beat Cavic by in the 100m fly tonight.

.01 seconds.

In my opinion, replays looked inconclusive. Seriously, you're going to watch as Phelps and Cavic touch the wall .01 seconds apart? To the naked eye, Cavic and Phelps touched the wall at the same time. And to some, maybe it looked like Cavic touched the wall first.

It certainly looked like Cavic was going to take the gold. Cavic was beating Phelps for 99 of the 100 meters in the pool. And when it looked like Phelps' assault on Mark Spitz's record was going to end, Phelps pulled off a miracle suitable for an Al Michaels' exclamation.

Coaches always say that sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. I think Phelps, tonight, was lucky. If Cavic takes the same half stroke Phelps does, then Cavic crashes the party and will be forever remembered as the man who saved Mark Spitz's record (and when I say remembered, I mean for like three months).

Cavic's coach and former Cal coach, Mike Bottom, decided to file a protest. FINA didn't look at it, which is blatantly wrong. At least take the time to be absolutely sure that the result was the result; that Phelps in fact touched before Cavic.

Yes, the walls are computerized, but that doesn't mean that they never fail.

It may sound like I'm an apologist for Cavic and a Phelps hater. Untrue. I would have loved for either of these two to win tonight. I rooted for Cavic because he's a Golden Bear (as am I) and anytime that the university can be represented well I will always root for that. I rooted for Phelps because he wears my country's colors. And then there's that record he's trying to break.

Either way, history was made tonight. A history that will probably see Cavic's name forgotten in the near future, over-shadowed by Phelps blazed path to glory.

But I will never forget Cavic and that performance he gave today. Whether his name is Mike or Milorad.