Bolt is back and still the best

LONDON -- The world all but paused for a moment, held its collective breath to see if Usain Bolt still had it Sunday night, could still fire our collective imagination with his ability to run fast and true like nobody else on Planet Earth. The stillness before the gun went off gave way to a huge roar in Olympic Stadium as Bolt and seven other men, the fastest field-ever, roared down the straightaway.

The seven others, of course, held fast to their own dreams. For the most part, the rest of the world wished for Bolt, the man who ran a world-record 9.69 in Beijing in 2008, lowered that record to 9.58 in Berlin in 2009 but who had struggled with injury and form and even a false start -- at the 2011 world championships -- since.

The dreams of so many simply could not, would not, be denied.

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Phelps reaches the end, so limitless and free

LONDON -- This is the end, so limitless and free, Jim Morrison sang, and so it came on this Saturday night for Michael Phelps, the one and only, the greatest athlete in Olympic history. In what he said repeatedly would be his last competitive swim, Phelps, 27, swam the butterfly leg of the men's 4x100 medley relay for the U.S. team on the final night of the swim meet at the 2012 Olympic Games, the Americans winning in 3:29.35.

The victory gave Phelps his 22nd Olympic medal, his 18th gold. He finished these Games with six medals -- four gold, two silver.

He became the first male swimmer to throw the Olympic three-peat, and did it in not just one event but two, the 200 IM and the 100 butterfly. The medley victory also made him the third person to win three golds in that event, along with Jason Lezak and Ian Crocker.

"I have been able," he said late Saturday in emphasizing he truly is retiring from racing, "to do everything I wanted."

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Phelps doubles up on three-peats with win in 100m butterfly

LONDON -- He was seventh at the turn. Once again, just as in Beijing four years ago, Michael Phelps was seventh after 50 meters of the 100-meter butterfly.

For those who don't understand the Michael Phelps way, this must be sheer agony to watch. It's tough to watch even for those who understand it completely, like his mother, Debbie, her arms draped over the railing in the stands. The 100 fly is such a short race. To be seventh of eight halfway through, and with his Beijing arch-rival Milorad Cavic leading the race at the halfway mark-- surely that is tempting fate, right?

Nah.

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200m IM performance proves Phelps still is The Man

LONDON -- Last year in Shanghai, Ryan Lochte not only beat Michael Phelps in the 200-meter individual medley, he set the world record, 1:54 flat. Phelps wasn't in his best shape. Even so, he said he felt himself on the last lap gaining, gaining, gaining. It wasn't enough. He knew then that if he wanted to be serious about swimming, serious about this grueling and demanding event in particular, he had to get his backside into the cold pool early in the morning and re-dedicate himself to being the champion he was and could yet be again.

In Lochte, Phelps figured he drew a rival as formidable as one could find, a man who not only could but would test Phelps physically but mentally. Many people on the pool deck might be afraid of Michael Phelps. Ryan Lochte assuredly was not.

The test of will, stamina and strength came down to this Thursday at the Aquatic Center: Who wanted it more?

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Adrian instant American hero after golden performance

LONDON -- One hesitates, truly hesitates, before proclaiming that so-and-so is the next American hero. It's a hard deal being a role model and an all-American guy these days, when everyone has a camera phone and social media is everywhere and someone you just met abruptly wants to know everything about you. Beyond which, our heroes, as we have seen far too many times, have a way of proving themselves all too susceptible to the intoxications and pressures of being, well, a hero.

That said, if you had to pick a good-looking, hard-body guy who swims really fast, who comes from a great family, who's emblematic of the multicultural United States of the 21st century, who's soft-spoken and well-spoken and who on Wednesday night won the heavyweight championship of swimming, the Olympic men's 100-meter, the first American to win it in 24 years -- America, meet Nathan Adrian.

In a thrilling race at the London Aquatics Center, Adrian, a 23-year-old from Bremerton, Wash., a product of the University of California at Berkeley, out-touched Australia's James Magnussen  by one-hundredth of a second for the victory.

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Michael Phelps, the first of his kind

LONDON -- You can't write history. It doesn't come neatly packaged, wrapped up with a pretty bow. If Michael Phelps had been able to write the script here Tuesday night, of course he would have won his signature event, the 200-meter butterfly. Didn't happen. He got caught between strokes at the very end, and he took silver. What a way to win his 18th career Olympic medal, tying him with Russian gymnast Larysa Latinina, who won her medals in the 1950s and 1960s.

An hour or so later, when the U.S. 4x200 relay team won, with Phelps swimming the anchor leg, he suddenly had 19, most ever.

And after four finals here at the 2012 London Games, Michael Phelps finally had his first gold medal of these Olympics.

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Long-time coach Bowman instrumental in Phelps' run to Olympic history

LONDON -- For 16 years, Bob Bowman and Michael Phelps have been together, swimmer and coach. Think of how many years the typical football coach lasts in one job.

Now consider what Bowman and Phelps have done together. This is their fourth Summer Games. Phelps, with 19 Olympic medals, is now the most decorated athlete in Olympic history.

In his extraordinary career, Phelps has never volunteered a word about medal counts. For him, it has always been about trying to change the sport of swimming. From the outset, Bowman understood. The journey has been, in every regard, a joint quest.

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Missy Franklin living up to the hype in Olympic debut

LONDON -- Missy Franklin can swim. No one ever had any doubt about that. She had announced herself on the international stage last summer at the world championships in Shanghai, when she won five medals, three of them gold. Missy Franklin has personality the force of several suns. She is happy, it seems, all the time. The older members of the U.S. national team marvel at her energy. Plus, and you can check this out for yourself in the swim team's "Call Me Maybe" take-off video, she can dance.

Coming into these London Games, the only question about Missy Franklin, the 17-year-old from Colorado, was whether the hype machine would eat her up and spit her out, or whether she would find the peace of mind, the serenity, the calm to do what she came her to do.

To win.

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Phelps falls behind Clary, gearing up for repeat gold

LONDON -- Three weeks ago, Tyler Clary told his hometown newspaper in Riverside, Calif., that Michael Phelps had been skating along on talent alone and was pretty much asking to get beaten. Clary also said it would be "complete satisfaction" when it would be he, Clary, doing the beating.

Hey, now.

Mr. Clary -- if indeed you do the beating in the 200-meter Olympic butterfly final, you will have earned every bit of that trash-talking.

If not, you'll always have that preliminary swim Monday morning, when you finished ahead of Phelps by 74-hundredths of a second, a couple lanes away. The two head into Monday night's semifinal seeded second and fifth, respectively.

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For French relay, revenge is so délicieux

LONDON -- One of the enduring images of the 2008 Beijing Olympics is the primal scream that Michael Phelps uttered on the pool deck when Jason Lezak, seemingly seized by an out-of-body experience, delivered a swim for the ages. In overtaking France's Alain Bernard, Lezak -- who swam 100 meters in 46.06 seconds -- secured relay gold for the United States and, not so incidentally, kept alive Phelps' historic chase for eight gold medals.

That day in Beijing, Phelps threw his arms up toward the sky as if he were signaling a touchdown by his favorite team, the Baltimore Ravens. Garrett Weber-Gale, who had raced the second leg of that relay, grabbed Phelps from behind as if he were about to body-slam him to the deck, or punch him, or something. The French, just over to the side, looked on in stunned silence.

Revenge, you know, is so délicieux.

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