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The men's 100 metre butterfly event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on 14–16 August at the Beijing National Aquatics Center in Beijing, China. U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps blasted a new Olympic record of 50.58 to defend his title in the event, edging out Serbia's Milorad Čavić (50.59) by one hundredth of a second (0.01). He also earned his seventh Olympic gold at a single Games, tying Mark Spitz's 1972 record for the most gold medals.〔 Australia's Andrew Lauterstein earned a bronze in 51.12, finishing in a close race against world record holder Ian Crocker by the slimmest margin. Phelps' triumph occurred after Čavić had remarked that it would be better for the sport if Phelps was defeated.〔 Phelps' margin of triumph was so close that the Serbian team filed a protest, but after officials reviewed the video, the International Swimming Federation (FINA) announced that Phelps did touch the wall first and his victory would be upheld.〔 Kenya's Jason Dunford finished fifth with a time of 51.47, and was followed in the sixth spot by Japan's Takuro Fujii, in an Asian record of 51.50. Ukraine's Andriy Serdinov (51.59), the bronze medalist in Athens four years earlier, and Papua New Guinea's Ryan Pini, gold medalist at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, (51.86) closed out the field. Dunford and Pini also made history as the first swimmer for their respective nation to reach an Olympic final.〔 Out of six individual events from his Olympic program, Phelps did not break the current world record in a final, finishing just 0.18 of a second behind Crocker's time of 50.40, set in 2005. In the entire event, other records were established, the Olympic record, five continental records, and several national records.〔 ==Preview== Due to a combination of the venue, Beijing National Aquatics Center (better known as the Water Cube), which was claimed to be built to increase the speed of the swimmers, and the recently introduced LZR Racer swim suits, which had been proven to give the swimmer a lower time by 1.9 to 2.2%, some analysts were predicting that many fast times and world records would be set in all the swimming events. As with almost every event that he entered in at the 2008 Summer Olympics, Michael Phelps was the favorite to win the men's 100 metre butterfly. Since winning the gold medal at the previous Games, in Athens, Phelps had demonstrated his superiority in this event, by also becoming world champion at the Melbourne 2007 World Championships, and achieving victory at the United States Olympic Trials.〔 Therefore, the 100 metre butterfly was one of the eight Olympic events where Phelps was attempting to win a gold medal. Going into the event, Phelps' compatriot Ian Crocker was seen as the swimmer with the best chance of beating Phelps. Crocker beat Phelps' 100 metre butterfly world record in 2003, and had since lowered it twice: once at the 2004 United States Olympic trials, and then at the 2005 World Championships in Montreal. Before the Olympics, Crocker and Phelps held the seventeen fastest times ever in the event.〔 In 2004, Crocker was the favorite in the men's 100 metre butterfly, but lost to Phelps by four one-hundredths of a second.〔 This victory gave Phelps the right to swim in the final of the 4 × 100 metre medley relay, however he gave up the spot to Crocker, and took his turn in the semifinals.〔 Although holding the world record, Crocker had lost the last four times that he was up against Phelps in the 100 metre butterfly, including the 2008 United States Olympic Trials.〔 Some thought that Crocker was not in the same shape that he was when we broke the world record, including Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) analyst Byron MacDonald who said that "If he's (Crocker) going to beat Phelps in Beijing, Crocker has to get close to his world record time of 50.40. He just hasn't shown it () can do it this year".〔 Another threat to Phelps' goal was Serbia's Milorad Čavić. In Athens 2004, Čavić was leading in a semifinal of the 100 metre butterfly, but right after his final turn, his suit opened at the neck and sucked in water, causing Čavić to finish last with a time of 53.12 seconds. At the 2008 European Championships, Čavić won the men's 50 metre butterfly and was the heavy favorite to win at twice that distance, but was suspended for wearing a "Kosovo is Serbia" t-shirt on the medal podium.〔 American swimmer Gary Hall, Jr. told ''The New York Times'' that although "Mike (Phelps) has been saying he’s going to win the 100 fly at the Olympics for the last year", he thought that Čavić would be the winner. Other possible medal contenders included Andriy Serdinov of Ukraine, who had won the Olympic bronze medal in 2004,〔 〕 and Venezuelan Albert Subriats, a bronze medalist at the 2007 World Championships and seen as a potential spoiler, if he could match or improve on his 51.82 time, in Beijing.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metre butterfly」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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