Michael Phelps: The Baltimore bullet

• 22 Olympic Medals- 18 Gold Medals, 2 Silver Medals, 2 Bronze medals
• 9 Olympic Records set in Beijing, 2008, 8 of which still stand, 7 of them being World Records.
• 37 times he has set World Records throughout his career.
• 57 Career National Titles, more than any swimmer, ever.

These are the facts that lead to one final, irrefutable one- Michael Phelps is the most decorated and inevitably, the greatest Olympian of all time, the greatest all round competitor in the sport of swimming. Tremendous feats all throughout his career have earned him superstar status amongst swimmers and a hurricane of attention from us lesser mortals from the non chlorinated world.

So emphatic are his achievements, that he can’t be compared merely to humans any more. He is in that domain now, where he would come out victorious even if he is compared to entire nations. He has more Olympic Medals than India, Mexico and 163 other countries.

It would be silly to say that it has been easy for him. Although he did have more opportunities to win more medals than other athletes, it came at a cost. Each new event pitted him against 40 other blood thirsty rivals, all desperate to beat him. He competes in four very different events, each as distinct from the other as a marathon is from a sprint. He eventually aced each one.

It is baffling how a seven year old boy who was scared of putting his face in water went so far. If there is one person responsible for unearthing the gem that was Michael Phelps, it is Bob Bowman, Michael’s coach. Bob recognised Michael’s potential when he first saw him swim and later declared that Michael’s only weakness was the immense growth spurt he experienced in his early teens, at times causing fatigue. The mantra Michael and Bob followed was- “We do things other people can’t, or won’t do.”

Little had Michael realised at the time, that Bob Bowman had changed his life. Putting immense faith in Michael’s talent, Bowman did everything in his capacity to make sure Michael would achieve everything he thought he was capable of. Before every race, he asked Michael to visualise the perfect swim, the perfect start and the perfect end. He also made him visualise the worst possible outcome, asserting that it would make him cautious and push him harder. In his autobiography, Michael has stated how the visualisation of the perfect swim, or the “videotape” as Bowman liked to call it, was an integral part of his preparation.

Bowman instilled in Michael the unshrinking drive to win, that typified his swimming style. “I never wanted to be second to anyone else. I wanted to be the first Michael Phelps.” Bob Bowman helped him achieve just that. There is, and there will be, only one Michael Phelps.

Here is a short description of Michael’s 3 most significant races-

3. 400m IM, 2004 Olympics, Athens

This was Michael Phelps’ first experience at the Olympics with a bay wreath around his head, his first gold medal. Michael himself is of the opinion that his first gold medal stands out the most. With this swim, Michael finished 3 seconds ahead of Erik Vindt, the silver medallist. He made the transition from a teenage phenomenon to a competitive force, setting another world record on the way.

2. 200m Butterfly, 2008 Olympics, Beijing

Michael was suffering from water filled goggles during this swim. He endured this adversity with aplomb. The circumstances weren’t even hunky-dory, but he held his nerve, maintained his focus and shattered another world record. During the race, he counted strokes so that he knew where the wall was, even though he could not see it.

1. 100m Butterfly, 2008 Olympics, Beijing

This race spoke volumes of Michael’s desire to win. In the build up to the race, Michael was running out of steam, with the physically and mentally gruelling calendar beginning to take its toll on him. Milared Cavic from Serbia was going neck to neck with Michael for the Gold Medal. Michael displayed a competitive drive that was unmatched and in spite of the tiredness, beat Cavic by one hundredth of a second. This narrow finish was enough to give him his seventh Gold Medal at the Beijing Olympics. He proved again that if you have the desire, however dire the circumstances may be, impossible is in fact, nothing. Milared Cavic later paid his tributes to Michael by writing in his blog, “People, this is the greatest moment of my life. If you ask me, it should be accepted and we should move on. I’ve accepted defeat, and there’s nothing wrong with losing to the greatest swimmer there has ever been.”