It’s not like your grandmother was hovering over the wall looking down on Michael Phelps and Milorad Cavic with a stopwatch. The swimmers have to push a touchpad. So why was there any controversy at all when Phelps beat Milorad by 1/100th of a second in last week’s 100-meter butterfly?

The official timekeeper, Omega, released a digital photo sequence of the finish, showing just as much as we saw on TiVo. The explanation, however, is key to understanding why the American Man-God-Fish won the race.

It requires 3 kilograms (6.6 pounds) of pressure to activate the touchpad. ”Any less and waves would set it off,” (Silvio) Chianese said. “You can’t just put your fingertips on the pad, you really have to push it. We explained all this directly after the race to (Cavic) and his coach.”

Just accept it already, Cavic. It’s like you were outputted by Tiger Woods, you were dunked on by Michael Jordan. You were, in reality, out-swam by Michael Phelps, the greatest Olympian ever. No shame in that.