Revisiting Cavic Versus Phelps

I admit it. I may have been a little soft last week when talking about the whole Milograd (Mike) Cavic being only thismuchslower than Michael Phelps thing.

And, to my surprise, people do remember, at least a week removed from Phelps winning that seventh gold medal enroute to his eight.

And, to my surprise, there is quite the uproar from people who aren't Serbian. Like this website, which looks like it has a photo of Cavic actually beating Phelps (conversely, SI.com has this sequence of Phelps supposedly touching first cause Cavic was like a millimeter from touching the wall).

Phelps breaking Spitz's record is great. It created drama at the Olympics, something that's been missing for some time. People cared. People watched. And Phelps delivered. I argue that if Phelps hadn't won eight gold medals, that tying Spitz would have just been an "ehh" moment in sport. People would care, but no one would care that much.

I mentioned last week that the computerized walls may have failed. That website (100thofasecond.com) argues that it may be a conspiracy.

In this day and age or computers running the show and huge dollars being spent on advertising and the like, I wouldn't put it past Omega, the IOC or FINA if they actually screwed Cavic out of the gold medal.

Yeah, Phelps would have gotten a hero's welcome when he returned with only seven gold medals. He would have gotten some face time. He probably would have still been on the cover of Sports Illustrated two weeks in a row. He would have done all the late night talk shows; all the daytime morning shows. Phelps would have still been a stud if he won just seven medals in Beijing.

But he wouldn't have reached the proportion of uber-mega-star he has now if he only won seven medals, and his sponsors wouldn't be cashing in right now.

Did Cavic get screwed? Maybe. Is Phelps winning eight medals good for corporate America (Earth?)? Of Course. Did Cavic really beat Phelps? From watching it live, I thought so.

That doesn't change, however, the fact that Phelps has eight gold medals around his neck.

Cavic has handled this well. Maybe too well? Who knows? I don't personally know him (though he did go to the most prestigious public institution in the world in Cal), but I wouldn't surprised me if he got paid off to handle the situation in this way.

But maybe that's just how Cavic is; content. He did lose (officially) to the world's greatest swimmer. But maybe in his mind (and in the minds of many) he (unofficially) defeated the world's greatest swimmer.

I know I thought he beat Phelps. I know that in my head, watching that race, I was torn between the two and that half of me really did want Cavic to beat Phelps, only to see the shocked look on the faces of everyone in the Water Cube and for Bob Costas to say some really dumb, smug thing about it.

Just think, would Cavic be on the cover of Sports Illustrated this week if he had defeated Phelps? The Giant Killer they would have called him. The Road Block. The Perfect Storm. The Snag in Phelps' journey to beat Spitz. We would all remember these Olympics as the Olympics that "could have been" for Phelps. And Cavic would have had his place in history has the only man that could be the titan.

But like I said last week, I'll remember Cavic. The Cal community will remember Cavic. Serbia will remember Cavic.

And, it appears, that this one race, that one minute span of time some August morning in Beijing, that will be remembered forever. For it may have been Cavic's night; his time in the spotlight. Instead, all we can ask is, did he?

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.