Michael Phelps' Best Swim Ever

Well, I want to give you more than you expect, so let's discover Michael Phelps' best SWIMS ever - for each of his events. For each event, I will display the table (or tables) that show his best swim(s) ever for that event. (This article is pre-2007 - I wonder if some of his recent swims would change anything?)

EPoints are like the Hy-Tek Power Point system, except that they are an EXACT, age-adjusted system. Power Points use one or two year age group spans, but EPoints give an exact, up-to-the-day point value for any swim. Click on the EPoints link to get more information and to find out why they are so important.

You can see all the raw data here: Michael Phelps' swim times. Look for the EPoints columns. The "Converted Time" would be the time Michael would have to swim today (May, 2006) to achieve the same number of EPoints.

Unfortunately, USA Swimming's database only goes back to when Phelps was 14. I've looked at his National Age Group records from when he was younger, but none of those times beat (in terms of EPoints) the swims described here. One other thing. I'm only going to consider long course swims for now. I'll go back and double check the short course swims later, but I don't think that anything will change. So with only a small bit of uncertainty (feel free to leave comments in the Forum if I've made any mistakes), HERE ARE THE BEST SWIMS OF MICHAEL PHELPS!

FREESTYLE

In the shorter events, Michael is almost human. There was even a 799 EPoint swim! (you can see it in the raw data) Wow. He must have had the flu. Anyway, here is the table for his best 50 Free:

The "Converted Time" would be the time Michael would have to swim today to achieve the same number of EPoints.

Yep, Michael's best 50 Free ever was when he was 14!

Here are the best swims for the 100, 200 and 400 Free:

That last one is another lifetime best (in terms of EPoints) as a 14 year old. By the way, his converted time for that swim would have been first in the world last year. This is one of Michael's many National Age Group Records. The second best 400 Free by a 13-14 boy? 4:01.14. So Michael is best by more than 2 seconds!

And here's the 800 Free:

Another national age group record. Second best: 8:19.44. Phelps beats second best by 3.34 seconds. Third best is 8:22.83, so Michael beat that by 6.73 seconds. Unbelievable.

And finally the 1500 Free:

Again, the converted time would be the World's best last year, and in fact has only been bettered by one person, the world record holder Grant Hackett. But interestingly enough, even though Michael swam that as a 14 year old, it is not even a 13-14 National Age Group record. Jesse Vassallo swam a 15:31.03 in 1976. Jesse must have been swimming downhill for that one.

BACKSTROKE

The backstroke and breaststroke are the only two strokes that Michael does not currently have a national age group, national or world record.

But even though it's not a record, that's still a pretty sick EPoints for the 200 back: 1064. Remember, 1100 is as high as they go!

BREASTSTROKE

Phelps doesn't swim the breaststroke very much. Maybe he can give some of his best EPoints to my daughters.

922 EPoints isn't bad for an off event.

BUTTERFLY

Here's where things get interesting. We've got world records and national age group records everywhere!

That was previously the World Record; now it is second to Ian Crocker's 50.98. Michael also has the National Age group records for 13-14, 15-16 and 17-18 for the 100 Fly. His best 100 Fly (in terms of EPoints) is the one shown, which won him the 2003 World Championships, the World Record and the 17-18 age group record.

200 Fly: I need to list several here:

The first one happens to be the current world record. The second best time other than Michael's: 1:54.64. But Michael's swim is "only" 1053 EPoints! The second one is the 15-16 national age group record. The third one Michael swam when he was 15 years 9 months. It's more than 1100 Power Points. I'm not sure how that can happen since they are only supposed to go up to 1100. The EPoints swim time converter kind of choked on it - it won't go higher than 1100! The fourth swim shown was exactly a year before the third one, when he was 14 years 9 months. The last three swims' converted times would all easily beat his world record. His 14 year old age group record is 4 seconds faster than the second fastest time for that group! The 15 year old 1100 EPoint swim is the second fastest 15-16 year swim, beaten only by the 16 year old swim listed above it! Because they are at 1100 EPoints, both the 14 and 15 year old swims have to be candidates for "Best Swim Ever by Michael Phelps."

INDIVIDUAL MEDLEY

In the 200 IM we have a pretty clear cut winner:

That's a world record; second best behind Michael is 1:58.98. That's a world record by more than 3 seconds! And 1100 EPoints to boot. Obviously a candidate for "Best Swim Ever by Michael Phelps."

And here are the 400IMs:

The 14 year old time is the age group record by almost 5 seconds. The 15 year old time is the 15-16 age group record by almost 7 seconds - and he was still only 15! The 19 year old time, the current world record by 3.01 seconds over second best, was Michael's gold medal winning performance at the 2004 Olympic games.

MICHAEL PHELPS' BEST SWIM EVER

SO - WHICH IS THE BEST? Well, here is where the arguing begins. For me, I've got to take one of these:

All three are remarkable. All three top out at the "maximum" 1100 EPoint level. To make the final decision, let's see how far above the actual 1100 point level each swim is.

For the 200 IM, the "slowest" 1100 EPoint swim would be 1:56.14. So he beats that by 0.20 seconds.

For the 15 year old 200 Fly, at the age when he swam this, an 1100 EPoint swim would have been 1:55.97. He beat that by 1.05 seconds!

For the 14 year old 200 Fly, at the age when he swam this, an 1100 EPoint swim would have been 2:00.33. Phelps beat that by 1.31 seconds!

So - because it beats the 1100 EPoint time by the most - the best swim ever by Michael Phelps is:

Not bad for a 14 year old!