from espn...
Unless you're Michael Phelps. Who never loses. Even when the naked eye tricks you into believing he did.
The naked eye said he lost. The naked eye said the bid to win eight gold medals had stopped in a stunning upset at the hands of Cavic -- a previously anonymous Californian swimming for Serbia, and doing a splendid impersonation of Buster Douglas in a Speedo. The naked eye said the most captivating Olympic story line since the Miracle on Ice had been scuttled.
Phelps made the right choice, somehow manufacturing a "short, fast stroke" to the wall. Cavic was no more than a foot from touching when Phelps still had his hands in the water. His recovery and reach were frantically fast.
Cavic stretched out, fully extended, hands grazing the wall below the water's surface. Phelps hammered the wall at water's edge. Those high-low butterfly finishes are the hardest for fans to judge -- and the judgment in the Cube was nearly universal.
"I thought Cavic won," fumed Serbian journalist Dejan Stevovic of Sportski Zurnal. "It was obvious."
"But he doesn't have $50 million in sponsors, like that guy," grumbled another Serb.
A world record was set for fastest hatching of a conspiracy theory. The greedy Americans were winning again, and cheating to make sure.
Never mind that there was no conceivable way to cook the timing of a bang-bang finish that displays instant results -- people wanted to believe the race was fixed. Or at least that the touch pads were faulty.
So the Serbs filed a written protest with FINA, the governing body of swimming. The Omega timing system had the same times on both its standard and backup apparatus. Referee Ben Ekumbo of Kenya then reviewed super-slow-motion replays of the finish and rejected the protest.
"It was very clear that the Serbian swimmer touched second after Michael Phelps," Ekumbo said.
To mollify the Serb contingent, Ekumbo showed them the video after the morning events were done.
"The Serbian team was very satisfied," Ekumbo said.
End of conspiracy. There are no grassy knolls at the Water Cube.