At Last, Phelps Has Competition

Bowman and Phelps do not, for instance, want to do anything to jeopardize Phelps's best events. He has none better than the 200 butterfly, a race in which he appears to simply swallow the water in front of him. Phelps entered the night with the nine fastest times in the history of the event. He is, in fact, his only competition. Knowing that, he attacked the first 50 meters a bit lackadaisically.

"You don't have any pressure on you to sort of push the boundaries of it," Bowman said.

Thus, Phelps is the only swimmer at this meet who could win his event by an astonishing 1.66 seconds -- as he did over runner-up Gil Stovall, touching in 1:52.20 -- and emerge from the pool long-faced, halfheartedly waving to the crowd.

"It's something to change for the next month," Phelps said.

Hoff might not change anything. Wednesday, she was pushed furiously by 18-year-old Allison Schmitt of Michigan over the final 50 meters of the 200 freestyle, and broke her own American record in 1:55.88 -- .04 of a second ahead of Schmitt, who also was faster than the old U.S. standard. She returned to the pool to face Coughlin, a swimmer capable of competing in both events Hoff tackled Wednesday, but who elected just one.

"She's a stud for doing the 200 free-200 IM double," Coughlin said. "That's an incredibly tough double. I don't know another female swimmer that could do it so successfully."

In the medley -- which combines the backstroke, butterfly, breaststroke and freestyle -- Coughlin shot out in the backstroke, her best discipline, and held the lead at the midway point. Hoff, though, reeled her in on the breaststroke leg, turning a 1.6-second deficit into a half-second advantage.

Her nerves were gone. The pool was hers. She touched in 2:09.71, taking back the U.S. record Coughlin had owned. And when she did, she ensured that Phelps wouldn't be the only American swimmer after a ludicrous haul in Beijing.