For a whole bunch of reasons, I couldn’t be near a TV when Michael Phelps was swimming the 100M Butterfly for his seventh gold of the Olympics. But I really wanted him to win and, eager to know what happened, I called someone who gave me the play-by-play as it happened.

Once I got near a TV/computer, I watched the fantastic race and continued to stay amazed that the guy won.

It all comes down to the fact that Cavic took a long final stroke and “coasted” to the wall while Phelps took an extra stroke to hit the wall first. But if you want to be totally convinced, these pictures (from Sports Illustrated, where there are more images) will quench your thirst.

Phelps is on the left, bare chested; Cavic is on the right in the suit

As an aside, I find that being an American citizen for the first time during an Olympics has a marked bearing on my rooting for American atheletes.