1. 2009 FINA World Championships in Rome, Michael Phelps v Milorad Cavic in the 100 butterfly:
2. 2009 FINA World Championships in Rome, Michael Phelps 200 butterfly, rubber wrapped and fast, 1:51.51:
3. 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, Michael Phelps wins 200 freestyle in 1:42.96
4. 2009 US World Championship Trials, Michael Phelps rips a 50.22 in the 100 butterfly:
5. 2007 FINA World Championships, 200 butterfly, 1:52.09
6. 200 IM World Record at the 2007 FINA World Championships, 1:54.98
7. 200 IM World Record at the 2006 Pan Pacific Championships, 1:55.84
8. 200 Free World Record at the 2007 FINA World Championships, 1:43.86
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXj3wETU5zg
9. 2003 FINA World Championships, Phelps breaks the 200 IM World Record for the first time in 1:57.52
10. 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Phelps breaks the 400 IM World Record, 4:08.26
NOTE: Phelps considers #3, the 200 free 2008 Olympic gold and world record, his most perfect race. He considers #1, Phelps v Cavic, his most exciting. See video of Michael talking about this in his pre-London Olympic interview:
Phelps is the best of the best.
Phelps did not break the WR in the 200 IM for the first time at Worlds in 2003. He did it a month before at the Santa Clara International Meet, I was there. He broke his own WR in that event 4 times that summer (Santa Clara, semi finals and finals at world champs, and then at Nationals the week after). Pretty remarkable…
file:///C:/Users/HUONG%20THUY/Downloads/10537design-1.jpg
Late to the game, but what a great swimswam article, thank you. Not sure where to begin, so I’ll put it on shuffle:
Agree with those that say the 2007 WC 200 free is their fave. It’s mine. This is where MP really redeemed that 2004 experience (as if a bronze vs Thorpe and PVDH needs redeeming). But what he did on that last wall changed the game. Didn’t PVDH basically announce his retirement after that race? And the sound from the crowd when MP surfaces on the last 50 is like nothing from a swim crowd before. Too bad this particular clip was lifted from a Slovenian rave or we could have heard the crowd 🙂
Honest question:… Read more »
an idea for the site – archive these and other historical videos in an easy-to-find place for future reference
I know this isn’t a top 10, or best of the best. but 200 fly 08 Olympics. swimming nearly blind. that should be in there.
How many world records and in what events did Phelps get while wearing a jammer suit that would be considered legal today?
There are 2 World Records swims that I have never seen and one of them exists and I believe the other one does not unless someone had a camera at the meet and taped the swim. The Austin swim I don’t believe exists because there was no TV coverage of that National Meet when he swam a 1:54.92 and that swim would have been covered by all because it was his first World Record. The second World Record swim I think exists somewhere in the TV vaults of a Japanese Network covering the 20001 World Championships in Fuukuoka, Japan when he swam a 1:54.58 and won his first World Championship at the age of 16.
That meet in Japan… Read more »
Skip: there exists a youtube video taken from the Italian TV archives, the links to which I’ve posted several times on this website and I believe another reader, Lennart van Haaften, has linked in one of the above replies.