VIDEO: Retrospective Documentary On 2008 Phelps-Cavic Showdown

Video courtesy of the Official Omega YouTube channel.

Omega Timing – the company that provides timekeeping technology for the Olympic Games – has published a short mini-documentary on its YouTube channel looking back at the thrilling 100 fly race in 2008 between Michael Phelps and Milorad Cavic.

That Olympic 100 fly race came down to a single hundredth of a second, with Phelps touching out Cavic to keep his quest for 8 Olympic gold medals on track.

The four-minute documentary, which you can watch above, catches up with Phelps and Cavic to relive the race and get both men’s thoughts on the historic moment two Olympic cycles later.

Cavic, who competed for Serbia internationally, was famously a speedster in the front of his races, taking out his 100s at a blistering pace few in the world could match.

Phelps, in contrast, was a notorious closer, charging home over the last 15 meters for numerous comeback victories in his stellar Olympic career.

The two narrate the swim from their own perspectives in the Omega video, plus share some interesting tidbits about their pre-race focus and their reaction to the swim 8 years later.

You can find some more interesting information on the swim in a SwimSwam story from last month in which TritonWear broke down the swim by stroke count, stroke rate and overall speed by following this link.

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Mr. Retiree
7 years ago

Here are two links that show underwater views/angles that prove Phelps won that race. I see that there are still sour grapes out there that are unjustified. Here are the links: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCmQd-FLbvw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nul3EEqE6Kc

Pullthelanelines
7 years ago

Still…nobody talks about the .01 one hundredth that Crocker missed out on bronze!

mikeh
7 years ago

Strange that Cavic is still unaccepting of the plain truth: that he got second. There is not a thing in the world wrong with that either. He should be more proud of that, he did something almost no one in history has ever done.

And also their showdown at the 2009 World Championships was even more epic and incredible in my opinion.

swimmer
7 years ago

Wow, Cavic speaks English surprisingly good. For me at least it’s a surprise. I guess he had studied overseas.

swimmer
Reply to  swimmer
7 years ago

Oh, ok. Born and raised in USA. That should explain it :DD

Bob
7 years ago

Cavic won. Even Phelps knows that.

SwimmerFoxJet
Reply to  Bob
7 years ago

Clocks don’t lie.

Irish Ringer
Reply to  SwimmerFoxJet
7 years ago

Or all the still footage of the race capturing it frame by frame, but still if I was Cavic I would have been devastated too. He had that race and finished long with his head up. He keeps that head down and he wins. He learned a valuable lesson, that you have to finish. One he holds dear to this day even when at the dinner table.

Protect that deck!
7 years ago

What’s up with Cavic’s booties at :24? But again, it’s a nice looking pool; where is it?

Steve Nolan
7 years ago

Mike Cavic, in the Mr. Roger’s Signature Sweater Collection.

swimswammer
7 years ago

“My gut instinct is that I won” … Huh? Like… it was at the time? Or does he still believe he should have the gold from that race?

Irish Ringer
Reply to  swimswammer
7 years ago

These days Cavic appears to be one with the gut, so who are we to doubt him.

About Jared Anderson

Jared Anderson

Jared Anderson swam for nearly twenty years. Then, Jared Anderson stopped swimming and started writing about swimming. He's not sick of swimming yet. Swimming might be sick of him, though. Jared was a YMCA and high school swimmer in northern Minnesota, and spent his college years swimming breaststroke and occasionally pretending …

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