As he walked onto the deck of the University of Missouri pool last month, Michael Phelps wasn't looking much like an Olympic swimmer.

True, he seemed eager to get down to business in his new Speedo suit, made of a novel chlorine-resistant material.

But the 21-year-old Baltimore native also wore a scruffy mustache and goatee, an unusual twist in a sport where extra body hair is considered a major performance drag.

It hardly mattered: Phelps not only won a gold medal in the 200-meter butterfly, he set a world record, another stunning example of his transcendent talent.

"After the race, (a coach) said that was the first world record he's ever seen with somebody with a goatee," he said.

It might not be the last for Phelps, who's custom-built for greatness.

Remember the show he put on at the 2004 Athens Olympics as a gangly 19-year-old?

Raising his arms behind his back before every race, then clapping with the back of his hands, like a bird flapping its wings. His size-14 feet, which acted like huge flippers. His double-jointed elbows, knees and ankles, which allowed him to cut through water like a fish. His six gold medals, one short of Mark Spitz's record.

At the 2008 Beijing Games, Phelps hopes to take another shot at Spitz's mark, but only if he's pleased with his results at the FINA World Championships in Melbourne, Australia, where his program will include five individual events and likely three relays in the competition that began during the weekend and continues through Sunday.

His chances?

No one ever has won seven gold medals at the worlds, but few are betting against Phelps this year, partly because of the retirement of his No. 1 rival, Australian legend Ian Thorpe.

"This is probably one of the biggest meets of my career," Phelps said before leaving for Australia.

"A good world championships sends you into the Olympic year feeling confident, and you want to keep everything rolling. I'm confident right now. . . . We're kind of ahead of schedule in where we wanted to be, so now it's time to really get down to business."

Dealing with success

That's an alarming message to Phelps' rivals, who have watched him break two world records in individual events and a third as part of a relay during the past three months.

At the Grand Prix of Swimming in Columbia, Mo., he competed in three consecutive races, the 100-meter butterfly, 100 backstroke and 100 breaststroke, in the span of 50 minutes, an almost unheard-of feat.

And during the Pan Pacific Championships in August, he swam the 100 butterfly, 100 backstroke and 100 breaststroke in a 45-minute period - against Ian Crocker, Aaron Peirsol and Brendan Hansen, considered the world's best in the their events.

"He continues to amaze us," Hansen said afterward.

The usually unflappable Phelps, the son of a Maryland state trooper and a schoolteacher mother, appeared to lose his way after the Athens Games.

In November 2004, he ran a stop sign while driving two friends from a party near his Maryland home. Although he initially denied drinking, he was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol and driving while impaired. After making a public apology, Phelps reached a plea agreement that included probation and community service.

"I think that one of the things we found out after Athens was that it's probably more difficult surviving success than it is surviving failures," his coach, Bob Bowman, said.

Enrolling at the University of Michigan the subsequent spring, Phelps basked in his Olympic fame, making quick friends and immersing himself in college life, though he couldn't compete for the Wolverines because he had turned pro.

With his newfound freedom, he admitted he made some ill-advised decisions, some straight from the bachelor's book of misadventures. Before buying dishes, he tried to improvise by drinking cereal out of a Gatorade bottle. Later, he loaded the dishwasher with dirty plates and liquid hand soap, returning to find his kitchen floor covered with soapy bubbles.

At the same time, Phelps drifted away from the Spartan training regimen that long had ruled his life. "I was going through sort of a roller coaster," he said.

Regaining his focus

Though he won five gold medals at the 2005 world championships in Montreal, he finished seventh in the 100- meter freestyle and failed to qualify for the final of the 400 freestyle, revealing results for a man who had set five world records two years before at the world championships in Barcelona, Spain.

"It's really funny when people say Phelps is struggling," American standout Natalie Coughlin said. "He's set the bar very, very high for himself. He's done some incredible things. It's really important that the swimming world just realize what an amazing athlete they have and not take him for granted. We can't expect him to break a world record every time he swims, even though it does seem to happen."

But the prospect of squandering his vast talent concerned Phelps, who had come so far so quickly. Scared to even put his face in the water as a boy, he was swimming competitively by age 7.

At 11, he met Bowman, who immediately realized he had a wunderkind on board. At 15, Phelps qualified for the 2000 Olympics, becoming the youngest member of the U.S. Olympic team since 1932.

He finished fifth in the 200-meter butterfly in Sydney, Australia, then five months later at the world championships, he became the youngest world record holder in history, swamping the field in the 200-meter butterfly.

Tired of drifting after the 2004 Athens Games, Phelps finally immersed himself in swimming again. He started pumping weights several times a week, refined his underwater dolphin kick and focused on Beijing.

"I think my head is on the right way," he said. "I'm more conscious of decisions I need to make to help my swimming. It's all part of growing up."

Taking ownership

Though training and business commitments forced Phelps to drop out of school, he still lives in Ann Arbor, Mich., and trains with Wolverines swimmers. Wired into swimming, he works the Internet at night, searching for advantageous information about the sport and opponents.

"He's sort of come through (the rough times), and over a period of two years has really developed more ownership over his swimming," Bowman said. "He's showing more maturity about the decisions he makes in regards to training or the way he runs his life away from the pool. All of those are coming together to produce some spectacular performances."

In Melbourne, Phelps will swim the 200-meter freestyle, 100 and 200 butterflys, 200 and 400 individual medleys and possibly all three relays - a rerun of his schedule in Athens, where he rode a wave into Olympic history. On Sunday, Phelps led the 400 freestyle relay team that barely missed setting a world record before winning. Phelps, Neil Walker, Cullen Jones and Jason Lezak claimed the world championship in 3 minutes, 12.72 seconds.

And the goatee?

He shaved it - in the hope of cutting more time off his marquee events.

"Hopefully, with a little bit of tapering, a little bit of rest, I definitely feel I will be able to take it out a little harder. If we can fine-tune some things, I could be faster. That's the goal."

Larger than life

These U.S. Summer Olympians did more than win gold medals; they transcended their sport to become pop-culture personalities and, in some cases, historic figures . A sampling:

• Bruce Jenner: Yanked out an American flag as soon as he won a gold medal in decathlon in 1976 in Montreal, then went Hollywood. Still can be seen on late-night infomercials.

• Sugar Ray Leonard: Burst into the national spotlight with gold-medal victory at 1976 Olympics in the light welterweight division. His magnetic personality and charismatic smile helped him become the most celebrated fighter since Muhammad Ali. Won professional championships in five weight classes and was the first boxer to earn more than $100 million in purses.

• Carl Lewis: "King Carl," a sprinter, won nine Olympic medals and towered above the sport for years, partly because of his enigmatic personality and flamboyant clothing.

• Jesse Owens: The runner won four gold medals in Berlin at the 1936 Summer Olympics, which Adolf Hitler had intended to be a showcase for the Nazi doctrine of Aryan supremacy. In 1976, President Gerald R. Ford presented him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

• Mark Spitz: After winning seven gold medals in swimming at the 1972 Munich Games, he became a famous poster boy and yukked it up with Bob Hope, Johnny Carson and other celebrities on prime time.

• Mary Lou Retton: Catapulted to international fame when she won the all-around at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, becoming the first American woman to bag gold in gymnastics. In ensuring years, appeared in everything from Baywatch to Naked Gun 331/3: The Final Insult, as well as as becoming an Olympic commentator.

• Bob Richards: Gold medalist in the pole vault in 1952 and '56 and a long-standing fixture on Wheaties boxes.

• Jim Thorpe: Thorpe, an American Indian, won the decathlon at the 1912 Olympics and later was a standout in professional football. In 1950, The Associated Press named him "the greatest American football player" and the "greatest overall male athlete" of the first half of the 20th century.

• Johnny Weissmuller: Won three swimming gold medals at the 1924 Games added two more in 1928, then really hit it big on the silver screen as Tarzan.

latimerc@RockyMountainNews.com

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