Phelps qualifies in 8th event

Associated Press

OMAHA, Neb.

Michael Phelps’ Olympic program is set. He’ll be going for another eight gold medals in London.

And get ready to see a lot of Missy Franklin. She’ll be busy, too.

Phelps wrapped up another stellar week at the U.S. trials Sunday night, rallying to win the 100-meter butterfly and secure his spot in five individual races at the Olympics.

Phelps was slow off the blocks and made the turn in sixth place. But he caught Tyler McGill on the return lap and surged to the wall to win 51.14 seconds, well off his world-record pace (49.82) but fastest in the world this year.

McGill hung on for the second Olympic spot in 51.32. Ryan Lochte, swimming an event he normally doesn’t in major competitions, just missed adding another race to his already busy program. He was third, 33-hundreths behind McGill.

Phelps, who won an Olympic-record eight golds at the 2008 Beijing Games, is set to swim the same events in London: the 100 and 200 fly, the 200 and 400 individual medley and the 200 freestyle, as well as all three relays.

In an ominous sign for his rivals, Phelps isn’t happy with just winning. He’s still looking for the perfect race.

“That was a pretty crappy first 50 and a pretty terrible finish,” Phelps said. “I should have taken another stroke. It felt OK. It didn’t feel great, didn’t feel terrible.

“It’s done, we’re done.”

Well, not quite.

The races that really matter are still to come in London.

“It shows that I can do the kind of event program like this at a high level again,” Phelps said. “We were struggling over the last couple years at doing one event at this level. [It’s good] being able to get a couple under the belt this week and hopefully build off of this. It will be good to get home and start heading toward London.”

Phelps’ legacy already is secure, no matter what he does in London.

Franklin’s star is still on the rise.

The high school senior-to-be locked up her fourth individual event with a dominating win in the 200 backstroke with a time of 2:06.12 seconds, fastest in the world this year and nearly 11/2 seconds ahead of runner-up Elizabeth Beisel, who secured the second spot in London at 2:07.58.

The 17-year-old Franklin already had earned spots in the 100 and 200 freestyle and 100 back. She’s also expected to swim on all three relays.

“I can’t believe I have seven events,” she said. “It’s so overwhelming but so exciting. The whole week went really, really well.”

The 200 back is Franklin’s best event. She’s the defending world champion and heads to London as the overwhelming favorite in that race.

“She’s the best in the world for a reason. She can beat all of us pretty handily,” Beisel said.

Beisel expects Franklin to thrive in London.

“She handles the media so well,” the runner-up said. “I can see a lot of pressure on her, but she handles it like she’s 25 and she’s been doing this for years.”