While the stadium announcer was still calling out his name, Phelps already had one foot on the podium, as if he wanted to say: 'This belongs to me.' And when it was his time, he jumped up and stretched both arms out.

Although there was a terse handshake between him and Cavic and they stood together displaying their medals, it was clear that there is not much love lost between the two.

'Even before the race it was like a weigh-in for a boxing match. It was a real show-down. And then at the end, obviously, I was very excited and trying to let all my emotions go.'

Phelps said he thought a rivalry such as theirs was good for the sport. 'It brings a lot of excitement.'

He added that he had been watching old videos. 'I saw the excitement that I used to have and the emotions that were going through my head.

'Those were the good memories and I wanted to get back to that. I think this meet has brought me back to that and I think it will help me over the next years.'

What made Phelps' victory even more remarkable was that his preparations had gone astray when he had a head-on collision with another swimmer during the warm-up.

His coach Bob Bowman said that in the process, his goggles had broken. 'He was doing his butterfly and crashed into a girl swimming backstroke, breaking his goggles.

'He said he had blurry vision, but he managed to compete the warm-up and then he was fully examined by a doctor, who said he could go ahead and swim.'

And swim he certainly did - probably as well as he has ever swum in his life.