ROME (Reuters) – Michael Phelps produced a stunning comeback to break the world record and retain his 100 meters butterfly world title Saturday.
The American swam 49.82 seconds to knock previous record holder Milorad Cavic of Serbia into second. Spain’s Rafael Munoz was third.
“I heard the crowd getting louder and louder and I figured it was going to come down to the touch again,” the Olympic champion told reporters after flexing his arms in celebration in an unusual display of emotion.
“As you could tell I was extremely ecstatic.”
Phelps was trailing in fourth place after 50m with Cavic, who set a mark of 50.01 in the semi-finals, leading the way but he kept his cool and charged home in the finish.
“He showed speed he’s never had before,” U.S. coach and Phelps’ personal coach Bob Bowman told reporters. “It was perfectly done.”
Phelps’s fourth gold of the meet and his 21st overall in world championships was sweet after he had a rare taste of defeat when he lost his individual 200 freestyle world title to Germany’s Paul Biedermann Tuesday.
He has also won golds in the 200 butterfly, the 4×100 freestyle relay and the 4×200 freestyle relay over the past week in Rome, where he arrived with a scaled-back program of races.
Bowman said Phelps would now go back to racing the 200 individual medley, after not entering that event in Rome, and seek to make sure he is ready for Biedermann next time.
“We’ll go back to the 200 IM, his best event, we’ll get his freestyle where it should be and maybe some backstroke,” Bowman said. Phelps, who won a record eight gold medals at last year’s Beijing Olympics, recently returned from a six-month break which included a three-month ban for being photographed inhaling from a pipe used to smoke marijuana.
