ROME — Michael Phelps’ historic performance in the 100-meter butterfly here Saturday may have profoundly tilted the dynamic when it comes to figuring out — which no one quite has — not only what to do with, but what to make of, the onslaught of world records set here at the 2009 swim world championships.

The final 2009 Worlds world-record count: 43.

That shreds the previous total of records set at an Olympic or Worlds, 29, at the 1976 Montreal Summer Games, when the introduction of goggles put so many records in clear sight. As did, of course, the systemic state doping program, later revealed, of the East German swim team. And the dominance — no doping — of the U.S. men.

Over the past two years, the world record at every distance — men’s and women’s — from 50 meters up through 800 has been broken; the only two remaining are the two 1500s.

In short, 38 of 40 events.

It’s one thing to say it’s technology behind the records rush. Because if it’s just technology, then there’s a compelling argument that these records ought to be affixed with asterisks or labeled, as others are in the FINA books, conditional — for one reason or another.

FINA, the world swim federation, obviously took steps here to acknowledge the problem — of, if you prefer a less judgmental term, the issue. It banned the high-tech suits as of Jan. 1. Next year, men will swim in what are called jammers, meaning suits that extend only from the waist to the knees, women in suits that don’t extend past the shoulders or knees.

Cornel Marculescu, FINA’s executive director, said at a news conference Friday that there would not immediately appear to be any reason to do anything but ratify the records set here in Rome. The suits were legal when the swims were swum, he said.

But he thereupon provided FINA an out. It’s up to the federation’s internal technical committee, he said. When and where they take up the issue — not immediately clear.

So that gives everyone involved time to consider the various arguments. And let’s face it — as Olympic backstroke silver medalist Markus Rogan of Austria, a Stanford grad, pointed out here, swimming can be the world’s most boring exciting sport, a sport that can depend on world records for ongoing attention.

The suits significantly intensified interest worldwide in these championships, sparking way, way more interest than the 2007 championships in Melbourne, Australia. As I pointed out when I was invited in the middle of last week to talk about the championships, and the suits, on an afternoon sports-radio talk show in Cleveland — there I was talking about swimming on the radio in Cleveland in a non-Olympic year.

Which is where Phelps’ 49.82 in the 100 fly comes in.

Phelps swam in last year’s technology, the LZR Racer. His primary rival, Milorad Cavic of Serbia, swam in this year’s news, the Arena X-Glide. The difference between the two is easy to explain. The LZR, among other features, contains polyurethane panels. The X-Glide, along with another high-tech suit made by the Italian manufacturer Jaked, is entirely polyurethane.

The newer suits better repel water and improve buoyancy.

If you’re the FINA technical committee, charged with deciding what if anything to do about the 43 records, isn’t the argument to do nothing — that is, simply ratify the records — precisely the 49.82 seconds of video that shows Phelps defeating Cavic? Isn’t that a mighty strong argument to overcome?

Because as Phelps said afterward, “It doesn’t matter what suit you wear. It matters how you train.”

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It’s Italy, so of course the look of the meet was superb. The giant wraps, as they’re called, that adorned the venue were maybe the best ever, super clever: images of Italianate sculptures rippling with six-pack abs like Michelangelo’s David sporting Speedo-style briefs.

The meet was held outside, and that lent a festival feel to it.

That said — the organization of this meet was otherwise far from first rate, and going forward FINA must make things better.

Conditions for the athletes were abominable. Just to take two:

The warm-up pool was way, way, way too crowded. That made it unsafe. Ask Phelps and Australian teen Cate Campbell, who bonked heads Saturday night. Fortunately, neither was hurt.

The ready room was like a sauna. Ask Cesar Cielo Filho, the Brazilian sprints champion. He said so.

The athletes don’t deserve to have all their hard work undercut by such banalities. It’s inexcusable, frankly.

And now that the championships are over, and there wasn’t a security breach, I will put into writing what I’ve been thinking here all week: The Italians got lucky nothing happened.

I’m not saying there was no security. Every now and then you would see a gun-toting officer of the Carabinieri.

Clearly, the Italian law enforcement authorites undertook both a risk analysis and a threat analysis, and let it be at what it was — security so lax that any kook carrying a gun of any kind could have walked right into the venue and shot up anything and anyone in sight.

This, then, is the most egregious violation of them all. There were dozens of stars here, perhaps none bigger than Phelps. Yes, he had American security looking after him, and for those in the know you couldn’t miss the U.S. security personnel shadowing his every move on the deck. Still, and not to give anyone any ideas, because the point here is to ensure everyone’s safety, everyone was at far greater risk than they needed to be.

No one likes the line you have to go through at the airport, what in the trade is called mag-and-bag. But as a starting point, such a procedure ought to be mandatory for everyone — athletes, coaches, officials, volunteers, behind-the-scenes workers, journalists, fans — at all major sports events.

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Other reflections and observations now that the 2009 championships have run their course:

If there were Pulitzer Prizes given out for swim reporting, my nomination would be for Craig Lord, the British journalist who has for months brilliantly chronicled the suit wars. Check him out at www.swimnews.com.

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Look for USA Swimming to move to implement the new rules even earlier. As early as, say, Oct. 1.

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The U.S. swim team topped the medals count with 22. American swimmers also won the most golds, 10.

As far as those counts go, however, this meet may well be remembered by many in the U.S. swim scene for as a kind of woulda-coulda-shoulda.

Americans should have won even more medals. For instance, the women’s 400-meter medley relay failed to qualify for even the race finals. “We tripped up in a lot of areas,” the U.S. national team coach Mark Schubert said. But he also said of these 2009 Worlds, “When we look at it two years from now, we are going to look at this and say it was a good starting point for us.”

Lessons learned for the Americans? Uncertain. The suits changed everyone’s strategy here, as Aaron Peirsol learned the hard way in the 100 backstroke, when he — the best in the world in the event — didn’t qualify for the finals because the suits had so quickened the pace in the heats and he didn’t turn it on quite enough early enough.

Going forward, the suits won’t be the same factor. “I sure will be glad to see it going back to normal,” Schubert said.
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With Phelps swimming the butterfly leg, the U.S. men’s relay team won their medley relay in the final event of the meet. And — no surprise here — in world-record time, 3:27.28. The old mark: 3:29.34, set last summer in Beijing.

The others on the relay: Peirsol, Eric Shanteau, Dave Walters. For Shanteau, a cancer survivor, and for everyone who has followed Shanteau through the past year as he has dealt with surgery and a comeback — the medley victory was sweet, indeed.

“It was everything I hoped for, everything I had dreamed about going over in my head,” Shanteau said. “It’s relief and happiness. But most of all, satisfaction.”

The medley gold gave Phelps five golds and, memorably, one silver, in the 200 free, behind Germany’s Paul Biedermann. Swimming in one of the new suits, Biedermann has cut four seconds off his time in the event from last year; before the arrival of the suits, such a thing was virtually unheard of in world-class swimming.

Phelps’ golds: three in the relays (400 free, 800 free, medley), two individual (100 and 200 fly).

The Phelps observation of the meet, however, may have been sparked by the silver. Asked why he was so emotional at the end of the 100 fly when he hadn’t been similarly demonstrative upon taking second in the 200 free, Phelps said here Saturday night, “I’m not going to splash water and have a big smile on my face and be happy after I just get destroyed.”

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You know who asked that question? A Serbian reporter. How did she do it? In such a long and complicated way it was like listening to a U.S. senator during a filibuster.

You know who translated the question into English? Cavic, sitting next to Phelps at the medalists’ table at the front of the room.

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The other contender for the Phelps observation to remember, again sparked by the 200 free: “If people look at not being perfect as a failure, that’s how they look at it. That’s not how I look at it.”

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Phelps was named the male swimmer of the meet, Italy’s Federica Pellegrini, the 200 and 400 free winner, the top woman.

And Phelps can get a lot better, his longtime coach, Bob Bowman, said.

Here’s where Phelps starts back at it: into the weight room in an even bigger way, Bowman said.

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Recommended reading from Robin Givhan, Washington Post fashion critic and 2006 Pulitzer winner, about what may be an enduring image of the meet — and for sure a long-lasting source of hilarity for many on the U.S. team, Ricky Berens’ split suit during the prelims of the 400 free relay.

Givhan, just to be clear, did not win that Pulitzer for swim writing. Though her piece on Berens, with his “beautifully muscled shoulders” and “sturdy tush,” evidence of the culture of hard bodies that populates the swim deck, is proof why she fully deserved that Pulitzer.

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Also recommended: Garrett Weber-Gale’s newest blog entry. The U.S. swimmer, who swam the second leg on the gold medal-winning 400 free relay in Beijing, explains why he didn’t have the sort of 2009 he wanted. He also says he intends to bounce back “stronger and smarter than I have ever been,” and is even now in training now for 2010: “… I have already begun doing push-ups throughout the day…I will be up to 300 per day by the beginning of next week!”

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FINA denied a highly technical protest by the runner-up Canadians, confirming the U.S. women’s water-polo team as gold medalists.

It marked a big win all around — for the athletes and for USA Water Polo, which had the smarts to pluck Adam Krikorian from UCLA and make him head coach of the women’s team. Krikorian had the unenviable job of replacing a legend, Guy Baker.

“It truly is, and I know it’s a cliche, but it’s a team effort. I couldn’t have done it without my support staff and assistant coaches and all the people who helped out,” Krikorian said, adding, “I think we can be even better, and I look forward to the next few years.”

The U.S. men, 2008 Olympic silver medalists, finished fourth in Rome. A medal here would have been — and if this seems improbable, it’s true — a first-ever for the American men at a FINA world championships. This was the 13th edition of the championships; the first was in 1973, in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.

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Ending on a light note, it both puzzled and delighted me to see Italian families walking their dogs down the “Main Street” that had been set up at the venue.

On Saturday night, for instance, I saw both a basset hound and a beagle. The basset was a talker. To recycle a line I used first on Twitter — probably because he was at a swim meet, and wondering the heck why.

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