It’s Official — Phelps Is on the US 400 Free Relay…Unless…

BY Phillip Whitten

ATHENS, August 14. EVEN before he took his first stroke this morning in the 400 meter individual medley, Michael Phelps took a major step toward achieving his goal of matching or bettering Mark Spitz's record haul of seven gold medals in one Olympiad. Phelps is entered in eight events here.

According to a story by AP writer Paul Newberry, Gary Hall, Jr., told reporters after a workout yesterday that the US coaching staff had announced that Michael Phelps will swim on the US men's team competing in the finals of the 400 meter freestyle relay tomorrow night. The team will consist of Jason Lezak, Ian Crocker, Phelps and one of four other swimmers, who will vie for the coveted fourth spot in tomorrow morning's prelims.

Lezak won the US trials in an American record 48.17. Crocker was second in 49.06 while Hall placed third in 49.16. Phelps, who made it clear he wants to swim on all three US relays, did not contest the event at all. However, he did win the 100 free at the US Spring National in February in 49.05.

Hmmmm, now where did you read this before?

More than a week ago, SwimInfo broke precisely this story, which ESPN then picked up, but the story was denied by US officials and SwimInfo was discredited.

According to Newberry, an upset Gary Hall grumbled, "There were no exceptions for anyone else. No one qualified for the Olympic team in February except Michael Phelps."

"If the rules applied to everyone, I would understand," Hall said.

There are two scenarios that could knock Phelps out of the relay final.

#1: As orginally reported on SwimInfo, Coach Eddie Reese told Hall and the other preliminary swimmers — Nate Dusing, Neil Walker and Gabe Woodward — that if two of them swam faster than 48.5 seconds in the morning, both would get spots in the final at the expense of Phelps.

Walker's best time is 48.55 while Hall's is 48.73, both from 2000. Dusing and Woodward have never broken 49 seconds.

On the face of it, it seems unlikely that two of the four men would go under 48.5, but reports do not indicate whether Coach Reese was taking into account the approximately 7-tenths of a second advantage a relay start confers.

Three of the four prelim swimmers will have the advantage of a relay start, anticipating the touch of the previous swimmer. If Coach Reese and his staff are going strictly by split times, Hall and Walker are both capable of going 48-low, or even 47-high with a relay start, while Dusing and Woodward have legitimate shots at getting around the 48.5 mark. (Of course, if this is the case, no one is going to want to swim the leadoff leg.)

IT may well boil down to Hall vs. Walker for that final spot. With the energy he's expended on the process for relay selection, Hall may not be as finely focused as he needs to be. It's only a hunch, but I'm guessing Walker will have the fastest prelim split, with Hall right behind him.

#2: Someone on the preliminary relay jumps early on the relay exchange in order to achieve the split necessary to meet Coach Reese's demands of going fast. In this case, no USA relay makes it to the the finals and the plan backfires.

Should the coaching staff go with Phelps, despite the fact that he did not "earn" a spot on the relay team, the move would be unusual but not unprecedented. Officially, coaches may select any swimmer on the team to compete on relays.

It's happened before. (And it's been controversial before.)

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