Olympics: Every Little Bit Helps Phenomenal Phelps

It has been a watery soap opera from start to finish. Take the most famous 70s mustache in American sport, mix in a supremely talented kid from Baltimore, set the whole thing in China and garnish with Serbian protests and finger-tip controversy and you might just end up with the most compelling sports film since Slapshot. Even Michael Phelps might pay to watch it, just to make absolutely sure. 'It feels like I'm in a sort of dreamworld,' he said yesterday. 'Sometimes you have to pinch yourself to see if it's real.'

There have been several occasions in the past week - not least after an extraordinary 100m butterfly final win that allowed him to equal Mark Spitz's 1972 record of seven gold medals - when the 23-year-old has visibly struggled to take it all in. No less an authority than Ian Thorpe insisted no one would ever equal Spitz's tally and subsequent events showed the Thorpedo was right to be skeptical, but wrong to conclude the fates would conspire against the American.

Phelps has received two helping hands on the road to greatness, neither of them attached to his own wrists. First, last Monday, it was the heroic final leg comeback by Jason Lezak in the 4 x 100m freestyle relay that salvaged a seemingly lost cause, and second, they will argue in Serbia that an asterisk should be attached to Phelps's seventh gold.

As Milorad Cavic glided into the wall, to the naked eye it appeared he had pipped the great man. Phelps, back in seventh after 50 meters, also felt his last-gasp lunge had come too late. Activating the stop-clock, though, required firmer pressure than Cavic registered in the micro-seconds before the champion's palms hit the wall in the neighboring lane. The clock insisted Cavic was beaten by 0.01 of a second, the slimmest margin possible. Phelps has denied using chemicals to stay ahead of the pack, but he continues to stretch the laws of physics.

The Serbian team, unhappy initially, decided not to appeal after the world governing body, Fina, rejected their formal written protest. But while the Kenyan referee insisted the replays were 'very clear', it was hardly an accurate description of video footage that had to be slowed down to one frame per 10-thousandth of a second. A potentially embarrassing conflict of interest also emerged in the form of Phelps's role as an ambassador for Omega, the company responsible for the timekeeping system. Another leading Fina official claimed the Serbian complaint was not a huge issue because 'Michael Phelps will still be the greatest ever ...it's just a question of whether he shares first place'. It implied a degree of behind-the-scenes doubt and sat uneasily alongside the same administrator's claim that swimming now had its first 'extra-terrestrial'. There was clearly little desire for a split decision.

As it is, the result entitles Phelps to a $1m (£537,000) bonus from the swim wear company Speedo for matching Spitz's haul. Together with the six gold medals he secured in Athens, the Baltimore Bullet now has 13 golds, four more than any other athlete in history, although by the time you read this he may have already secured his 14th in the 4 x 100 medley relay, which was raced in the early hours of this morning (from 3am GMT). 'I think it shows that no matter what you set your imagination to, anything can happen,' said Phelps, who hopes to resurface in London in 2012.

He is also keen to encourage kids who, like him, find swimming to be a release from the cares of the real world. As a child in Towson, Maryland, Phelps was teased about the size of his ears, forced to cope with his parents' broken marriage and diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. It was only when his coach Bob Bowman spotted something special in the 11-year-old that he identified his true purpose in life.

It was Thorpe's cautionary warning: 'Winning seven gold medals at the Olympics is impossible,' that had been pinned to his locker door at university. 'I always welcome comments,' Phelps said. 'It definitely motivates me even more.' No one will ever doubt him again.