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Jumping right in, Phelps wins first goldBEIJING: Shortly after shattering the world record in the 400-meter individual medley, one of swimming's toughest events, Michael Phelps dropped a bombshell.
"I would like to not swim that anymore," he said after his gold medal performance Sunday morning. "It's one of the hardest races and I'd like to try other events."
Ahead of his world-record pace from the first 50 meters, Phelps pulled away from his American rival Ryan Lochte on the breaststroke - his weakest leg - to win going away in 4 minutes 3.84 seconds. Lochte, who led at 150 meters, faded to third, behind Laszlo Cseh of Hungary, who was timed in 4:06.18.
Phelps swam 1.41 seconds faster than his world-record time at the United States Olympic trials in July. His face widened in surprise when he saw his time on the large videoboard. He glanced at the stands, where President George W. Bush was vigorously waving an American flag, and gave him a nod. "That's a pretty special feeling," Phelps said.
If it is possible to upstage a sitting president, Phelps did it. The breadth of his burgeoning popularity was evident in the mixed zone afterward. It was like a United Nations assembly, with journalists from around the world pressing against the barricade, straining to make a connection. When Phelps stopped to answer questions, the surge was so great he stepped slightly back and said: "Whoa. Don't push."
Phelps acknowledged that Lochte and Cseh pushed him in the first half of the race. "I wasn't comfortable after the 200," he said, laughing. The back half of the race used to be where Phelps struggled, but no more.
Since 2004, Phelps has shaved almost five seconds off his world record in the 400 individual medley, with all of his improvement coming in the back half, especially on the breaststroke leg.
His performance on the walls has been crucial to his improvement. On Sunday, he went into the final turn with a half-body length lead over Lochte and Cseh and emerged with a body-and-a-half-length advantage. Among those who looked on in awe was Eric Shanteau, who finished third in the 400 individual medley at the 2004 trials. Shanteau, who qualified for the 2008 Olympic team in the 200 breaststroke, recently described Phelps's final burst - which propelled him to victory at the trials - as "incredibly, ridiculously hard to do."
He added: "The event starts to hurt halfway through it. So for him to do what he does after that last turn and go that fast, it's pretty much inhuman."
The 400 individual medley is one of three events, along with the 200 butterfly and 200 individual medley, that Phelps has ruled with a pumped fist. The world record in the event has been his since August 2002, and he has lowered it eight times in that span. The gold was his ninth Olympic medal, leaving him two shy of the all-time leader, Mark Spitz, who collected his haul in 1968 and 1972.
"I think of it as his signature event," his coach, Bob Bowman, said of the 400 individual medley "It's made him the swimmer he is today."
This was the first time in three Olympics that Phelps had swum a final before lunch. Morning final, evening final, it makes no difference. Phelps's body clock, it seems, is hydropowered. The water has always been a welcoming place for him. As a child it was a sanctuary, a place he could escape the mean kids who teased him about his elephant ears. Now it is the one place he can go to get away from the trappings of fame.
Long before he had the likes of Lochte and Cseh to inspire him, Phelps was motivated by his tormenters. His mother, Debbie, remembered an 11-year-old Phelps emerging in tears from the locker room at Towson University during a swim meet because two boys from another team were making merciless fun of him.
Four years later, in 2000, after Phelps qualified for the U.S. Olympic team in the 200 butterfly, one of those boys came up to him in the stands at the Indiana University-Purdue University natatorium to congratulate him. As Debbie Phelps remembered recently, the kid said to Phelps, "Remember me? I swim with ..."
Phelps looked him in the eyes and said, "I don't seem to recall who you are." After the boy left, Debbie Phelps said she turned to her son and said, incredulous, "Michael, you really didn't remember him?" He told her: "Yes I did. But I was not going to give him that sense of satisfaction." |