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2008 – Phelps vs Cavic; 1988 – Biondi vs Nesty

With the world shutting down, we’re reaching into our archives and pulling some of our favorite stories from the SwimSwam print edition to share online. If you’d like to read more of this kind of story, you can subscribe to get a print (and digital) version of SwimSwam Magazine here. This story was originally published in the 2018 Summer edition of SwimSwam Magazine.

Story by Rachel Lutz

This year marks the anniversary of an incredible 100-meter butterfly race at the Olympics, where the gold and silver medals were decided by the slimmest margin in the sport of swimming.

Are you thinking of Michael Phelps beating Milorad Cavic at the Water Cube in Beijing in 2008? Try again.

Thirty years ago, another 100 butterfly was decided by 0.01 seconds. Let’s take a look back at both races.

Matt Biondi made his first Olympic appearance at 18, when he won a gold medal with the 4×100 freestyle relay at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles. But he really rose to prominence four years later in Seoul.

The 6-foot-6 Biondi was the favorite to win in Seoul — the world’s best butterflier at the time, Pablo Morales, didn’t make the U.S. Olympic team.

Biondi entered the final with the second-fastest seed time. He swam in briefs and without a swim cap. He led the field the entire race, except the last stroke. Biondi made the costly split-second decision to kick into the wall, not realizing how far away he really was. He ended up coasting to the wall for about six feet.

In the time it took him to glide to the wall, Suriname’s Anthony Nesty completed a full stroke to touch one-hundredth of a second faster, in 53 seconds flat, to win the country’s first Olympic medal and become the first black swimmer to win Olympic gold.

Biondi later famously wondered, “What if I had grown my fingernails longer?”

Biondi ultimately took home seven medals from Seoul — five gold, one silver, one bronze — and capped his career with 11 total medals across three Olympics. Nesty, meanwhile, captured a bronze in the 100 butterfly four years later.

Twenty years later, the 100 butterfly was again decided by 0.01 seconds. But this time, it worked out in the U.S. swimmer’s favor.

Phelps had already won six gold medals in Beijing when he stepped up to the blocks before the final, wearing a cap and a tech suit.

The 100 butterfly was expected to be his toughest race, as he did not hold the world record at the time — Ian Crocker did. Phelps was seeded second behind Serbia’s Cavic, who had broken Phelps’s Olympic record in the heats.

Cavic led at the turn, and Phelps was seventh. But Phelps’s trademark underwaters and second-half speed carried him to the finish. Cavic finished the race fully extended into the wall while Phelps took a half stroke to get his hands on the touchpad first.

Phelps clocked 50.58 to Cavic’s 50.59.

In another twist, just 0.01 seconds separated Crocker from the bronze medal, won by Australia’s Andrew Lauterstein.

“When I chopped the last stroke, I really thought it cost me the race,” Phelps said at the time. “But it happened to be the exact opposite. If I had glided, I would have been way too long. I ended up making the right decision, trying to take a short, fast stroke to get my hand on the wall first.”

It was the seventh of an eventual eight historic gold medals for Phelps in Beijing.

Phelps and Cavic met again a year later at the 2009 World Championships in Rome, where Phelps won; his 49.82 world record still stands today.*

*Since the writing of this article, Caeleb Dressel has brought the world record down to 49.50.

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Gheko
4 years ago

Phelps was very lucky to win that one, lots of people think money was involved in the result.

Vic
4 years ago

Hand shakes after your swim people. It’s always nice to see.

bodybyfood
Reply to  Vic
4 years ago

How dare you say that at this time! Handshakes are bad and break social distancing 6 feet buffer decorum. I propose that only the following should be acceptable going forward: enthusiastic splashing or smacking of the water coupled with a loud yell of accomplishment, an icy stare/glare towards your opponent, complete ignoring, or quick upward nod of the head signaling, “‘sup, good swim,” will be acceptable.

Vic
Reply to  bodybyfood
4 years ago

Good one, we do need more splashing.

Gator
Reply to  bodybyfood
4 years ago

Yes and one empty lane separating swimmers.

Barry
4 years ago

Video: https://youtu.be/0AYUcgPfrmk?t=412
No kidding about that long finish…

gator
Reply to  Barry
4 years ago

And see Nesty’s coach, the unflappable young Gregg Troy, congratulating him at the end of the vid

nuotofan
Reply to  Barry
4 years ago

Incredibly long…, there was room for a full stroke. Obviously the fatigue (in the last 20 metres Biondi’s stroke visibly tightened up) had a big part in Biondi’s unsuccessful choice.

DLswim
Reply to  nuotofan
4 years ago

Nuoto, I agree. Sometimes it seems like a “mistake”, but it really is fatigue setting in. Same thing with Cavic, he was dead tired at the end and couldn’t help but lift his head before touching the wall, which cost him the gold medal.

SwimmerFan901
4 years ago

I realize this is an archive story, but I nonetheless think it might be worth correcting/updating the last line where it states that Phelps’ 49.82 World Record “still stands today” to avoid confusion & maintain accuracy.

nuotofan
Reply to  SwimmerFan901
4 years ago

I’d write: Phelps 49.82 WR still stands today in our memory. Because now could sound bizarre considering how many races Phelps has won, but Cavic was really the huge favorite of that 100 fly final at Worlds09: perfect training in the season, focused on the 100 fly, great desire of revenge, suit advantage, and Phelps had also a collision in the warm-up before the final..: I remember that almost every Italian swimming coach and experts thought that Phelps would have lost that 100 fly final like happened for the 200 free.
One of the greatest race ever from the Goat and an impressive turnover of real disadvantages.

Togger
Reply to  nuotofan
4 years ago

I always think a good “what if…” in swimming is Biedermann and his suit in 2008.

Unlike virtually everyone else at Beijing he didn’t wear a LZR, swimming in just some jammers (presumably due to contract commitments to Adidas).

Phelps romped home in the 200 free going 1.42.96, nobody near him. Biedermann went 1.46 flat (definitely the second most impressive performance of the final, Park took silver at 1.44.85 in a LZR).

Given how much boost Biedermann got from the Arena, how quick would he have gone in a full LZR? I think the Arena might be worth slightly more than a second over the LZR and Phelps still wins it. But it’s certainly not cut and… Read more »

Joe
Reply to  Togger
4 years ago

I think it’s a bit much to suggest that the suit would help that much, even for someone like Biedermann. Let’s not forget that the LZR was defo inferior to the full poly supersuits, prolly not that much better than Mizunos.

Biedermann wasn’t Thorpe, but at the same time he wasn’t some scrub who dropped 4 seconds because of the suit alone. Later he would go 1:44 in a jammer. He was on an upwards trajectory, even without the suit, leading to Rome 2009. Realistically I think in a LZR, Biedermann would, at best, be scrapping with Park.

Togger
Reply to  Joe
4 years ago

I think he’d be decently ahead of Park, the full LZR was fast suit, definitely ahead of a modern suit. Looking at swimmers who wore both, the LZR took the 100 free WR down from 47.8 to 47.05. With more or less the same guys swimming the year after, it only dropped to 46.9.

I don’t think he’d have beaten Phelps, and agree he was getting quicker anyway through that period, but I think a big, muscly guy like Biedermann would have benefitted a lot from what was a very buoyant suit (albeit it didn’t have the snap of the Arena or a modern tech suit).

Cyrus
Reply to  Togger
4 years ago

Biedermann didn’t even wear a cap…

Reply to  SwimmerFan901
4 years ago

Updated this!

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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