THORPE STILL CASTS SHADOW When Australian star Ian Thorpe announced his retirement from swimming in November at 24, the March 25-April 1 world championships in Melbourne, Australia, lost a big-name draw. And Michael Phelps lost his chance at a historic rematch. At the 2004 Summer Olympics, Thorpe finished first and Phelps third in the 200-meter freestyle, dubbed swimming's "race of the century" because of the speed of the field. The Netherlands' Pieter van den Hoogenband, the 2000 Olympic champion in the event, was second. The three were set to meet again in Melbourne, with Phelps as the favorite after swimming the world's fastest time (1:45.50) in the event last year. "Before he retired, I was really looking forward to racing him in the 200 free in Australia," Phelps says of Thorpe. "That was a race that I was like, 'That's going to be a fun race, no matter what happens.' " Phelps still must contend with van den Hoogenband, who posted a 1:45.65 in the 200 at last year's European championships. U.S. teammate Klete Keller also will push the pace of the race. Phelps will use Thorpe as motivation even in his absence. "The fact that it is in Australia and it's an event that he dominated for so long gets me excited and motivated to produce a fast time that maybe no one's done before or maybe that someone hasn't done in a few years," Phelps says. Thorpe holds the world record in the event, 1:44.06, set at the 2001 world championships. By Vicki Michaelis

"When the alarm goes off in the morning for workout," Phelps says, "he'll look up at me and he's almost squinty-eyed, like, 'What are you doing up?' "

Phelps is rising early to build on his legacy.

He won six gold among eight Olympic medals in 2004, the most overall for anyone at a non-boycotted Games, as well as two individual world titles. He holds three individual world records.

His last preparatory meet for the March 25-April 1 world championships in Melbourne, Australia, comes this weekend at the Grand Prix of Swimming in Columbia, Mo. At worlds, fans will see a taller Phelps (he grew three-quarters of an inch in the year after the 2004 Olympics, to 6-4) who is more muscular (up to 199 pounds) and more world-wise.

The 21-year-old believes the next 18 months, beginning in Melbourne and ending with the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, "could really make me or break me as an athlete."

At first blush, that seems the kind of overstatement an overachiever uses as incentive to ease off the snooze button. Yet Phelps' performances over the next 18 months could make or break the arguments for whether he becomes the greatest swimmer.

With the recent retirement of Australian great Ian Thorpe, the path to that title is clearer, although fellow U.S. Olympian Klete Keller contends Phelps "already passed" Thorpe.

"To really have a legacy that (Phelps) may be individually proud of, he's going to have to do it over more than one Olympics," three-time Olympic gold medalist and NBC swimming commentator Rowdy Gaines says.

Like Phelps, three modern-era male swimmers have had one dominant Olympics apiece: Thorpe, with three golds and two silvers on home soil at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney; Matt Biondi, with five golds and seven overall medals in 1988; and Mark Spitz, with seven golds at the 1972 Games.

Phelps plans to compete through the 2012 Summer Games in London, after which, he says, he will be done.

"He's got two more Olympics where he's going to bring massive amounts of medals in," says Erik Vendt, who finished second to Phelps in the 400-meter individual medley in Athens and trains with Phelps in Ann Arbor, Mich. "So if people don't think that he's the greatest swimmer of all time now, just by looking at the pure statistics of it, I think by the end of his career it will be a no-brainer."

Gaines believes Phelps will earn top-rung status long before then.

"If Michael just makes the Olympic team (for Beijing), to me he's the greatest swimmer in history," Gaines says. "That's all he has to do."

Heavier Olympic load?

That's likely not all he will do.

Phelps swam in five individual events and three relays in the last Olympics. In Beijing, says his coach, Bob Bowman, "He could do more. I don't know if he will do more, but he could."

Possible additions include the 200-meter backstroke, in which Phelps ranked fifth in the world last year, and/or the 100-meter freestyle, where he was seventh. Either could add three more races to his Olympic program because of preliminary heats.

At the 2004 Olympics, Phelps competed individually in the 100- and 200-meter butterfly, the 200- and 400-meter individual medley and the 200-meter freestyle. He will duplicate that program at the upcoming worlds, "probably one of the biggest meets of my life. And 2008 is probably second. I need to have a good worlds in order to have a good Olympics."

Phelps lived with his mom near Baltimore when he rose to stardom in Athens. For more than two years he has been on his own in Ann Arbor. He moved there to continue training with Bowman, his longtime coach, who became the University of Michigan's head men's swimming coach in 2005.

Phelps encountered bumps on the road to independence. A DUI charge in November 2004 was later dropped when Phelps pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of driving while impaired and was sentenced to 18 months' probation. That included speaking at schools and attending a Mothers Against Drunk Driving panel.

At the 2005 worlds he failed to qualify for the 400-meter freestyle final and finished seventh in the 100-meter freestyle.

"That year was more of me playing around too much and me not taking things as seriously as I should have," Phelps says. "That was like a wake-up call. I'm glad it was there rather than (last summer's Pan Pacific championships, where he won five gold medals and set two individual world records) or this coming worlds or at the Olympics."

Life in Ann Arbor

Phelps enrolled as a student at Michigan — he can't swim for the school because he's a pro — and has taken classes toward a degree in sports management. Last fall, as his training, media and endorsement commitments ramped up, he dropped his courses and for now is a full-time swimmer.

He lives on Ann Arbor's main street, close to sandwich shops and restaurants, where he can feed his famously voracious appetite. He plays poker and video games and watches his beloved Baltimore Ravens. He dates a recent Michigan graduate, whom he declines to identify, in a relationship he describes as "on and off."

He trains with University of Michigan swimmers and others such as Keller and Vendt who are fellow members of Club Wolverine, giving him an elite level of competition daily.

"It's exciting because I can race someone every day," he says. "When one of the freshmen talks trash to you during a workout, that fires you up."

He also is a full-time owner of Herman, a birthday gift last year from Phelps' agent. Between training times and competitions, Phelps is juggling dog care. He took a red-eye flight back from a swim meet in California last month to pick up Herman from his sister's house outside Washington, D.C.

"I guess it's pretty much what I thought it was going to be like," he says. "I always want to play with him, and when he wants to play, he plays. If I'm sitting on the couch watching TV, he's sitting there next to me, watching TV with me."

In August 2008, Herman can watch Phelps swim toward more history in Beijing. Phelps figures the 2008 Olympics will be the last in which he can swim his trademark ambitious program and therefore his last chance "to bring new attention to the sport."

"After '08, as of right now, I don't see myself swimming anything over 200" meters, Phelps says.

He doesn't think about his place in swimming history, he says. He wants to leave his name in swimming's record books, but he would rather his mark on sports be more widely felt.

"I remember Michael Jordan's hand on the Gatorade bottle, and it was huge. And I always would go to the grocery store, and I would measure up my hand against it," Phelps says. "It's something I always did when I was walking around the grocery store with my mom.

"It's little things like that that got kids excited about sports. That's what made him one of the best basketball players and athletes of all time, in my opinion."

What makes the greatest swimmer of all time? It starts with that doggone alarm.

Enlarge By Mark Avery, AP Michael Phelps waves after picking up the top men's award at the Southern California Swimming Grand Prix last month. The American swimmer has a heavy schedule over the next year and a half.