Michael Phelps’ Top 3 Butterfly Rivals

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Photo Courtesy: Rob Schumacher-USA TODAY Sports

by Robbie Dickson, Swimming World College Intern

After gracing the cover of the newest issue of Sports Illustrated, it is only fitting that Michael Phelps headline one of our final articles of the year. While Phelps captured the limelight for all the world records and gold medals he amassed throughout his career, none of that could have been accomplished if it were not for his fierce rivals pushing the “Great One” into uncharted waters.

1. Ian Crocker

Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

Crocker could be dubbed as Phelps’ first true rival. The two were teammates on the 2000 Olympic team but qualified in different butterfly events, Crocker the 100 and Phelps the 200.

Later as Phelps began to expand his event schedule, the two would start their rivalry in the 100m butterfly. At the 2003 World Championships in Barcelona, Crocker stole the 100m butterfly title in a world record time of 50.98. Nobody, including Crocker, expected Crocker to win that race. After those World Championships, Crocker was on the cover of Swimming World Magazine. Phelps took the cover of that magazine, and put it on the ceiling of his room so that every time he woke up, he would see the man who took the gold away from him.

At the 2004 Olympic Trials in Long Beach, Crocker went out well under world record pace at the first 50 and would hang on to break his own world record in a time of 50.76. Phelps was closing hard but simply ran out of time to run down his rival. At the Olympics in Athens, Crocker once again jumped out to an early lead but Phelps finally touched first when it mattered. He managed to get his hands on the wall four one-hundredths of a second ahead of Crocker.

Later in the Games, Phelps would hand over his butterfly spot in the finals of the medley relay to Crocker, who he knew would have a great leg for the Americans. This rivalry would have its’ last major showdown in the summer of 2005. At the 2005 World Championship trials in Indianapolis, a rematch of the Olympic Games from the previous summer, Phelps would win and make it known that his win in Athens was not a fluke. In Montreal, however, Crocker would win the gold in a time of 50.40, which would stand as the textile best for over ten years.

This rivalry was as pure as it gets. There was little trash talk as the two men would let their times do the talking and would be cordial outside of the water. It would capture the attention of everyone on deck when the two would dive in side by side, attempting to retake their position atop the throne. Without Ian Crocker, there is no real way to predict how Michael Phelps would have progressed through the 100m butterfly.

2. Chad Le Clos

Photo Courtesy: Streeta Lecker / Getty Images

The drama in Rio before the semi-finals of the 200m butterfly when Chad Le Clos shadow boxed directly in front of Phelps was just another chapter in their rivalry story, a story which began in 2012, when Le Clos out touched Michael Phelps in his signature event by .05. Phelps would rebound to take the 100m fly over the South African, but the silver in the 200 marked the first time Phelps had lost that race in the Olympics since 2000.

In the years between London and Rio, the two never raced in head-to-head competition, but in 2015 the rivalry sparked back up. While Le Clos was in Russia at the World Championships, Phelps was racing at US Nationals in San Antonio, TX. Even though the two were separated by thousands of miles, trash talk travels almost as fast as the speed of sound.

After Michael Phelps won the 200m butterfly in his fastest time in over six years, and in a time that would have won the gold at Worlds, Chad Le Clos was quoted by businessinsider.com, “I’m just very happy that he’s back to his good form, so he can’t come out and say, ‘Oh, I haven’t been training’ or all that rubbish that he’s been talking.”

Phelps did not offer any words in return, instead allowing his times to speak for themselves. At the Rio Olympics, the rivalry was writing its final chapter. Phelps started out by reclaiming his 200m butterfly title with Le Clos missing out on the podium. In the 100 as fate would have it, the two tied along with Hungarian Laszlo Cseh for the silver behind Joseph Schooling. It is possible to speculate that if Phelps had won that gold medal in 2012 over Le Clos, that could have been the last time the world may have the seen the last of Phelps?

3. Michael Cavic

This rivalry started in 2008, with a race that most people will never forget.

The pre-race trash talk that Cavic was spewing was enough to fuel Phelps, who had already swam over fifteen races during the Games. Cavic jumped out to an early lead, and it looked like the gold medal streak in Beijing was going to be snapped. But somehow Michael Phelps managed to have all the stars align perfectly and the swimming gods on his side, allowing him to sneak ahead of Cavic by .01 to win the gold medal in the 100m butterfly, his seventh of the games. This tied Mark Spitz for most gold medals in a single games.

The rivalry would carry over into Rome at the 2009 World Championships, where the trash talk would continue. Cavic would swim fast during the prelim and semi-finals, narrowly missing becoming the first man under 50 second barrier in the 100m fly. But Phelps would delve deep into his reserves over taking Cavic in the homestretch to break the barrier in a winning time of 49.82.

The two would swim head to head at the London Olympics, but by that time, Le Clos had taken over the role of Phelps’ biggest foe. The Cavic-Phelps rivalry is one that gained a lot of outside attention, and helped catapult the sport and Phelps to levels it had never seen before.

All commentaries are the opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Swimming World Magazine nor its staff.

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Mio Mio

7 years ago

It is not Michael Chavic it is Milorad .

Proteeti Sinha

7 years ago

It’s Milorad Cavic…. Pragati Gupta ?????

Coach McCauley

7 years ago

I was training a great high school swimmer who also was a very good football player.

One day he asked me “Does M Cavic swim year round?” I was speechless for a minute. I explained that Cavic probably swam 364 days a year in Southern California.

Great swim against the Greatest Swimmer ever.

Daniel Timothy

7 years ago

Ian Crocker

Old Coach

7 years ago

At 2015 Nats, it appeared to me that MP sat on the lane line and yelled, “Le Clos!” Right? Wrong?