U.S. makes a lot of waves

SYDNEY —  Evaluating the state of U.S. swimming, poised in the on-deck circle before next year’s Summer Olympics in Beijing, is astonishingly effortless after eight days in Melbourne at the World Championships.

Thirty-six medals, 20 of them gold and seven of those gold won by Michael Phelps. He had five world records and his gold-medal total was more than any other country in the competition, with the exception of Australia’s nine. The U.S. women won nine events -- with world records from Natalie Coughlin, Katie Hoff and Leila Vaziri -- and the men won 11.

It could have been more one-sided had the men’s 400-meter medley relay team not been disqualified when Ian Crocker dived in too early in the preliminary heats or had an ill Brendan Hansen, the world-record holder, been able to compete in the 200 breaststroke.

“I don’t know the proper word to describe this men’s team,” said Crocker, shortly after the Duel in the Pool against Australia here on Tuesday. “The best that comes to mind, which doesn’t really say anything, is ‘ridiculous.’ I don’t think anyone can touch us.”

The depth is especially impressive. Crocker spoke of the “headliners” like Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Aaron Peirsol and Hansen, and 31-year-old Jason Lezak of Irvine echoed those sentiments.

“It’s the best men’s team I’ve ever been on and it’s been eight years on the national team,” he said. “Our best guy, to our guys who made the team as relay qualifiers, the whole field is amazing.”

Assessment, however, is not so easy with the rest of the world.

The Australian men came away with one gold medal, in the American-free medley relay, a far cry from the uber days of Ian Thorpe, who is now retired, and fading Grant Hackett. Australia’s coach, Alan Thompson, said he was surprised at how especially dominant the Americans were in Melbourne.

The good news, for Australia, is that its women are stopping the franchise from sinking. Five of Australia’s nine gold medals came from Libby Lenton, who won three individual races and had a hand in two relays. Leisel Jones took the two breaststroke races that are Olympic events, and Jessicah Schipper won the 200 butterfly.

The two biggest mysteries in Melbourne were the Chinese and the Germans, leading some observers to wonder if sandbagging had become the newest Olympic sport.

China won but two medals -- a silver and a bronze -- and equaled the medal count of Tunisia and Korea. The Germans, whose women had a sensational showing last summer at the European Championships, accounted for four medals -- as many as Great Britain -- and none of them gold.

The showing by next summer’s Olympic host was especially befuddling. Though the Chinese coaches insisted that, yes, most of next year’s team was competing in Melbourne, the lackluster results raised more questions.

“I don’t think anybody has a clue,” U.S. coach Mark Schubert said. “It’s all conjecture.”

Schubert was asked on the final day of the meet why the rest of the world wasn’t better.

“I have so much to think about making sure we’re good,” he said, smiling. “We feel we have a tremendous advantage because of the number of people that swim and are involved in swimming. We’ve felt for a long time we’ve underachieved.

“Developing heroes like Michael Phelps and Natalie Coughlin really helps. I truly feel we can get better than we are right now.”

Something of a new world order emerged in Melbourne. The U.S. gobbled up most of the pie but crumbs, of sort, were landing in unexpected places. Ous Mellouli of Tunisia won his country’s first gold medal, as did teen prodigy Tae-Hwan Park of South Korea, and Albert Subirats captured the first medal for Venezuela when he finished third in the 100 butterfly behind Phelps and Crocker.

Schubert, though visibly pleased, wasn’t getting carried away. It is, after all, his job to guard against hubris in the lead-up to the Olympics.

“It was almost as if Grant Hackett was giving us a lecture in his interview the night after the 1,500, about how he wasn’t quite prepared and into it,” he said. “The World Championships is a real important meet, the second most important every four years.

“But the whole world will be way different prepared and so will we.”

lisa.dillman@latimes.com

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Five to watch

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Five swimmers to watch in Beijing (not named Michael Phelps):

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* Laure Manaudou (France) -- The diva-like Manaudou, who won the 200-meter freestyle (a world record) and 400 free and finished second to American Kate Ziegler in a riveting duel in the 800 free, could fit in well on the women’s tennis tour. When she refused to speak, her coach Philippe Lucas, who looks like a mini Hulk Hogan, helpfully seemed to talk for hours in the mixed zone.

* Ous Mellouli (Tunisia) -- He made history for Tunisia, winning the country’s first gold medal in the World Championships in the 800 freestyle. Unfortunately, for Mellouli, that distance is not an Olympic event. He also took second in the 400 free. Educated in high school in Marseille, France, Mellouli now drops words such as “awesome” into conversation, sounding just like his USC classmates.

* Libby Lenton (Australia) -- Here’s how stressed Lenton was in the lead-up to her wedding on Saturday. She broke a world record on Tuesday in the women’s 100 freestyle in 52.99 seconds, swimming the leadoff leg of a mixed 400 relay against Michael Phelps, no less. Lenton won five gold medals at the World Championships, three in individual events.

* Katie Hoff (U.S.) -- The once-shy Hoff seemed like a different person in and out of the pool. The 17-year-old won three golds (two in individual events) and capped off the meet by breaking a world record that has stood for nearly seven years, the 400 individual medley. Then Hoff held court with the media, telling stories on herself and cracking jokes about Phelps, who, apparently has turned teasing Hoff into a fine art.

* Mateusz Sawrymowicz (Poland) -- The decade-long era of dominance by Grant Hackett in the 1,500 freestyle didn’t end at the hands of American Larsen Jensen, but rather a relatively unknown Polish teenager who won in 14 minutes 45.94 seconds, dropping about seven seconds from his previous personal best.

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-- LISA DILLMAN