Opinion - Editorials

Pool magic

As Michael Phelps emerged from the Water Cube in Beijing with his eighth gold medal in an Olympic Games, bettering Mark Spitz’s tally of seven, one look at the medals tally said it all. Australia, the fourth-placed nation, had won just that many gold medals in total. Is Phelps the greatest Olympian of modern times? Spitz, the proud owner of that golden record over the past 36 years, says he is. “Not only is this guy the greatest swimmer of all time and the grea test Olympian of all time, he’s maybe the greatest athlete of all time,” Spitz declared well before his record was bettered. Not everyone will agree of course. Many have contended, during the past week, that the feats of Carl Lewis, who claimed four successive Olympic long jump titles apart from five other gold medals, and Paavo Nurmi, who also won nine gold medals in a variety of races, should be placed above the feats of the U.S. swimmer. Unlike track, swimming produces world records in almost every event in an Olympics or World championship. Chasing multiple gold medals in the pool is easier than on track, so goes the argument.

Such debates are pointless. Phelps must be celebrated as surely one of the greatest champions since the original Games were held in Olympia, Greece in 776 B.C. He was born to swim and his coach Bob Bowman famously predicted, when Phelps was 11, that he would be in the U.S. Olympic team by 2004; better a world record soon after that; and by 2012, be the greatest swimmer in the world. The forecast was way off. Phelps, 15, made the U.S. team to the Sydney Games and, before his 16th birthday, cracked the 200 metres butterfly world record. He took six golds at the Athens Olympics, and seven at last year’s World championships. In the Water Cube, an incredible seven of his eight golds came in world record timings. What makes Phelps so special? Expert analysis has found his body streamlined to perform perfectly in the pool (although not on land). His 6-feet, 4-inch frame is propelled by a 6-feet, 7 inch ‘wing-span’ that helps him take fewer strokes than most others. His upper body is long and his legs short, thus reducing drag. He reportedly consumes 12,000 calories a day. He trains 16km to 18km a day, six days a week. He can swim virtually any stroke. Spitz limited himself to freestyle and butterfly at Munich; Phelps did freestyle, butterfly, and the individual medley in Beijing. Spitz swam 14 races; Phelps did 17. The 23-year-old American showed why he is the greatest when he outreached the Serb Milorad Cavic by one-hundredth of a second in the 100-metre butterfly for gold No. 7. Phelps is a sure bet to take half-a-dozen golds at the 2012 Olympic Games in London and give sporting greatness new meaning.

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