OMAHA — The United States Olympic swimming trials are the spectacle that Michael Phelps built. If he had not strapped the sport to his broad back and climbed to the Olympic summit six times in Athens in 2004 and eight times in eight nights in Beijing in 2008, there would be no pre-finals light show at CenturyLink Center, no ticket scalpers. The crowds would be far smaller than 14,000, and fewer athletes would be extending their careers past college with the help of corporate endorsements.
And there would have been at least one fewer entrant in the 200-meter butterfly.