Michael Phelps could win 8 gold medals in Beijing this year, beating Mark Spitz's 7 golds in the 1972 Munich Games. The media has really played up this potential record-breaking feat, making comparisons between the two swimmers, Phelps and Spitz. And Phelps is doing his own bit to build up the hype, as demonstrated by the Spitz-like mustache he was sporting when he arrived in Beijing on Monday. Phelps has been lauded as possibly the fastest all-around swimmer ... ever. And if you're just looking at the times, then I guess it's not entirely wrong to say that. If you're just looking at the times.

On the women's team there is another story the media has grasped a hold of: Dara Torres, 41 years old and mother of a two-year-old daughter, is swimming in her 5th Olympics. Amazingly, her time in the 100m free at the qualifying meet, where she came in first just touching out Natalie Coughlin, is a full 2.47 seconds faster than her time in the 1988 Olympics, when she was 21. And 2.47 seconds is pretty significant for a sprint like the 100m. Side note: even though this swim qualified her to swim the 100m in Beijing, she decided to withdraw from it so she could concentrate on her best event—the 50m free.

There are a couple of levels of interest with the Torres story. First and foremost is the feel-good, wow, isn't it great?! sort of reaction you get from people in their 30s and 40s who appreciate knowing that it's still within the realm of possibility for somebody their age to make these sorts of achievements. Torres is sweet confirmation to aging athletes that, hey, I can still whip a 20-year-old's ass if I put my mind to it! Of course, the black cloud some people love to paint over this story is the possibility of doping. How else, they ask, does a 41-year-old recent mother qualify for the Olympics and in so doing beat her own time from when she was 20 years younger? Torres knew this would be an issue and so she has made herself an open book, volunteering for a new pilot program from the USADA where she is required to give urine and five vials of blood every few weeks. For this reason, I happen to believe Torres is clean. Of course, I also believe this because I want to believe it. But come on, there's something to be said for the fact that she's making herself an open book to the USADA. I mean why would you do that—how could you do that?—if you weren't clean? So yes ... I'm with this guy even though some have been more skeptical.

Actually, the fact that Torres is recording better times at 41 than she did 20 years ago makes a lot of sense in some ways, because the sport of swimming has changed so much in the last 40 years. Research has lead to improvements in training regimes and, perhaps more importantly, swim suits. Back in the 80s and early 90s, when I was competing, the idea of a fast suit was "as little suit as possible." Many of today's suits take the opposite approach, covering most of the thighs and the chest, even for men. One of the thoughts behind these is that the suits squeeze muscles taught, reducing drag, and actually helping muscle recovery after a swim. The materials used to make these suits are also a factor, specially designed to glide through water, not unlike a shark's skin.

I don't mean to take away from the accomplishment of a 41-year-old conditioning her body to swim as fast as people half her age. But when you factor in all that's changed with the sport in this time, it kind of makes sense that the 41-year-old Torres can swim 2.47 seconds faster than the 21-year-old Torres. It's not that her younger self could not have swam that fast. She actually had it in her. She just lacked the right preparation and gear. Maybe she would have even swam faster back then, all things being equal.

Which brings me back to Phelps and the "fastest swimmer ever" title. Can we really make the claim that Phelps is "the fastest swimmer ever?" In one sense, yes, of course we can: He's got the fastest times. Duh. But the times are only half the story here. Is it possible to make any sort of meaningful comparison between Phelps and great swimmers of the past, people like Spitz, or my personal idol as a kid Matt Biondi, or Ian Thorpe. People who—in their time—were also considered the fastest. When Spitz raced in Munich in 1972, he didn't wear a cap or goggles (goggles were not allowed, apparently). He didn't even shave his mustache, something that people would consider absolutely crazy today. Also, as far as sports drinks, Gatorade was it ... and it had only been on the scene for a couple of years. The high-performance energy drinks and supplements we have today just weren't around. Jump ahead to Matt Biondi—he wore the skimpy suit all male swimmers wore at the time, his muscles flapping around all willy-nilly like, creating drag. What if he had worn the LZR suit by Speedo. Could he have been as fast as Phelps in a side-by-side race?

In 1972, Spitz swam the 200m free in 1:52.78. Biondi swam a 1:47.99 in Seoul in 1988. Twelve years later, Pieter van den Hoogenband won Gold in Sidney with a 1:45.99. And four years after that Ian Thorpe (The Thorpedo) took Gold in Athens with 1:44.71. Last year at the World Championship in Australia, Michael Phelps, who is a favorite in the event in Beijing, went a 1:43.86 for the new World Record. That's almost a full 9 seconds in 36 years. This is just looking at one event in mens racing. But the same sorts of strides are happening in other events and on the female side, as well. And the interesting thing about Dara Torres is that we see this trend of faster times in the same swimmer, despite an increase in age.

So the question I always wonder is this: When does it stop? When does the playing field level out? And at what point can we definitively say, "This person here, this is the fastest swimmer ever." There's got to be a point when people just won't go any faster, where the record just stays on the books for years and years. Right? I mean at some point it has to stop. Because doing the 200m free in under 1:30 ... that's an impossibility. I mean ... isn't it?

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