for those of you who like conspiracy theories - Michael Phelps

the theory goes that Michael Phelps did not actually win his 7th gold medal in the butterfly, but with Omega being sponsors of his and possibly some involvement by the Chinese wanting the publicity of 8 golds he was awarded it anyway.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99dTBWrWFZw

of course the other theory is that even if the Serbian did touch the wall first to stop waves setting off the timers you have to exert a certain force, and that by Phelps timing his strokes better he lands with greater force and exerts the required force 0.01 seconds earlier or whatever it was

even more likely is that footage is blurry underwater and he just won but from certain angles on that video it looks interesting...

 

I guess he just didn't put enough pressure on the touch pads

 

if that is the case

he won the race - ok they all know the rules and it's the same for everybody but in the old days where men with stopwatches recorded the time as soon as you touched the wall he would have won?

obviously they have to make the pads less sensitive or they would get set off all the time, but maybe this system is worse than men in suits peering into the pool with stopwatches as they simply saw who reached the finishing line first, which is the whole point - nothing to do with pressure on the board.