SwimmingOn the penultimate night in the swimming pool, Michael Phelps swam for his seventh medal. His collection may not be of the flawless gold cast the sponsors and headline spinners desired but surely there is no doubt now that what the Baltimore teenager has achieved this week in the water has been monumental and rare.

He is not done yet. Last night's dramatic victory in the 100 metres butterfly confirmed his place on America's 4x100 metres medley team, the showpiece race of the last night in the pool. If the USA win, he will have six gold medals and two bronze to put in the family cabinet. He will also enter the archives alongside Soviet gymnast Alexander Dityatin, who won six of his eight medals in the same day in 1980, as the most decorated Olympian at a single Games.

Last night, after edging out his USA rival Ian Crocker in a thrilling sprint for home in the 100 metres butterfly, Phelps ambled backstage drinking his now customary tin of Quikfast and clearly no longer concerned with the ramifications of history.

"The arms worked I guess - having a long torso helps," he smiled, in reference to his late burst for the wall when his dramatic swoop for home gave him a winning time of 51.61.

It was a fantastic victory, because on the outward lap it seemed his team-mate Crocker, who posted the world record (50.76) in the national trials a month ago, had set out too strongly for his compatriot.

Phelps hit the outward wall trailing both Crocker and the Ukraine's Andriy Serdinov.

"Coming up to the wall I saw how fast Ian went out and the strategy was really to stay as relaxed the first 50 and bring it home as fast as I could," he recalled.

Although the finish of the butterfly is not as overtly exciting as the freestyle sprints for home, the sight of Phelps gradually erasing the distance while calmly obeying the discipline of his form was thoroughly engrossing. Over the last 60 metres the swimmers in the central lanes rose and fell through the water in tandem. Only in the last 15 metres was it clear that Phelps had managed to put himself in position to win.

"The last 50 I started to get tired so I wanted to get my hands on the wall. I had to take my goggles off here before I realised I won," he said. "Ian and I have raced a bunch of times and we have been able to really push each other and the same thing happened tonight."

After Crocker trumped Phelps at the world championships in Barcelona in 2003, US papers seized upon the budding rivalry. It has now passed into legend that Phelps tacked a poster of Crocker to his bedroom wall so his waking thought would be of unfinished business between them. But Crocker's feat last July made him the favourite for Olympic gold in this event, regardless of Phelps's dominance and growing aura over the past few nights.

"That race was like something I have dreamed about every single day. That is exciting and I am able to be part of the relay tomorrow night," added Phelps.

Phelps later gave his place on teh relay team to Crocker, whose fate is was to play a supporting role in yet another gold chapter of Phelps's tale. Ian Thorpe has been the only individual swimmer to beat Phelps at these games. "Yeah, it was a good week for the United States," said the even-tempered Crocker.

"Nobody trains for second place but the likelihood we would tie was slim. So that is the way sport is and there will be a next part. It is hard to get timing down on the last three strokes but it is something to work on."

Tonight, he will cheer as Phelps, at 19, attempts to complete a week of swimming that may remain peerless for many Olympics to come.

"We are proud of each other," Crocker shrugged. "We are friends despite what people would like to think and we enjoy the rivalry. I saw the replay of the finish - it's one you bite your lip over but what can you do? There is always a next time."

But the frightening thing is that on the eve of his destiny, Phelps is still only discovering the full range of his repertoire. Maybe the time has come to go out and buy a glossy print of the teenager who is bound to become America's sportsman of the year.

"No, his picture won't ever be on my wall," laughed Crocker. "But the rivalry will always be there regardless."

As he prepared to walk towards the warm-down pool with his teenage conqueror, somebody asked which idol, then, would grace the walls of Crocker's bedroom. The swimmer stopped in his tracks and thought for a moment as Phelps talked into a television camera nearby.

"Bob Dylan." It was good to hear that these water creatures have some sort of regard for the ancient past.