He desperately craves an Olympic gold medal of his own, about the only thing missing from his swimming career. This might be his last chance to get it, too. He turns 26 in a couple of weeks, and who knows if he'll still be in the pool four years from now.

All he has to do is beat Michael Phelps — and become the villain of the Beijing Games.

Crocker, a soft-spoken native of Maine who loves strumming his guitar, writing thoughtful blogs and cruising around in vintage cars, appears to be the last major hurdle to Phelps' bid to surpass Mark Spitz with eight gold medals.

They'll face each other Saturday morning in the final of the 100-meter butterfly, Phelps' last individual event of the Olympics and Crocker's only one.

What must be going through this guy's mind? He's not about to apologize for wanting to win the first individual gold medal of his career. Then again, he surely knows that a whole world is cheering on Phelps, eager to see him do something no Olympian has done before.

"You can start by not worrying about what everybody else thinks," Crocker said. "Nobody knows what I've really gone through in the last eight years and what has gotten me to this point, besides myself and a few people that I know well. So it's my own personal deal at this point."

Crocker is certainly a formidable foe, holding the world record in the 100 fly for more than three years. But Phelps won their most important showdown at the 2004 Athens Olympics. He also came out on top at last year's world championships and last month's U.S. Olympic trials.

After waiting around all week to race at the Water Cube, Crocker inexplicably wore a jammer — a suit that runs from the waist to just above the knees — and came shockingly close to getting bounced in the preliminaries.

Switching back to his regular legsuit for Friday's semifinals, Crocker was much faster. He tied for the third-best time, trailing the top qualifier, Serbia's Milorad Cavic, and Phelps.

Crocker returned in the evening to swim the butterfly leg in the prelims of the 400 medley relay, which could be the crowning race of Phelps' monumental achievement.

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