By PAUL NEWBERRY, AP National Writer 2 hours, 1 minute ago
BEIJING - Michael Phelps kept every swimsuit, every cap, every pair of goggles he wore during nine magical days at the Water Cube. Every memory will be savored, too, from goofing off with his U.S. teammates to bowing his head not one, not two, but eight times to receive a gold medal at the Beijing Games.
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"There are moments I'll never forget," he said.
Neither will the whole world.
Phelps took down the grandest of Olympic records Sunday in the final event at the pool, helping the Americans rally for a world-record win in the 400-meter medley relay. That victory, one more than Mark Spitz managed at the 1972 Munich Games, assured him a place in sports history and a legacy of, well, does he even need one?
Wait, there's more. In his pursuit of Spitz, which actually began four years ago with six gold medals in Athens, Phelps became the winningest Olympian ever with 14 victories, five more than any other athlete.
Even though the Americans have never lost the medley relay at the Olympics, the latest gold was hardly a breeze. When Phelps dived into the water for the butterfly — the third of four legs — the Americans were third behind Japan and Australia.
But Phelps, swimming the same distance and stroke that he used to win his seventh gold a day earlier, powered back to the front on his return lap, passing off to Jason Lezak with the Americans in front. Australia's Eamon Sullivan tried to chase down Lezak and appeared to be gaining as they came to the wall. But Lezak touched in 3 minutes, 29.34 seconds — the seventh world record of Phelps' remarkable run.
Afterward, Phelps gathered his three mates in a group huddle, then hugged each one of them separately. He thanked them for their role in the last of his three relay wins. They congratulated him for his remarkable feat.
"It was cool," backstroker Aaron Peirsol said. "We got to be a part of it."
Another member of the relay team, breaststroker Brendan Hansen, was most impressed by the way Phelps detached himself from all the hype once he got away from the pool. He'd set a world record in the morning, then go back to the village and act like nothing had happened.
"I'd be like, 'Do you realize what you're doing?'" Hansen said. "And he'd be like, 'Man, the pizza is good today.'"
But deep down, Phelps was soaking it all in — the glory and the minutiae. He had all the medals hanging in his room. By the end of the games, Hansen quipped, they resembled a wind chime.
As much as he relished the actual races, what he really seemed to treasure most were those behind-the-scenes moments. Unlike Spitz, who was viewed as aloof and even arrogant by his fellow swimmers, Phelps got along with all his teammates, even though they all knew he was in a league of his own.
He hung out with them during his down time in the athletes' village, playing cards and the world-conquering game Risk. He made a point to engage the Olympic rookies he didn't know very well. He did what lots of other 23-year-olds did — play hip-hop music and text his buddies.
"I just wanted to make sure I took every single moment in and every single swim in, every single moment with my teammates, so I would remember them," Phelps said. "I don't want to forget anything that happened."
No one else does, either.
Everyone at the pool was mesmerized by Phelps, even if they were competing for another country.
"I couldn't care less about my swims," said Australia's Leisel Jones, who won two gold medals. "To swim in the same era as him has been awesome."
Spitz's record had stood since the Nixon administration. Australian coach Alan Thompson figures it might take even longer for someone to take down the new mark.
"We've been talking about Mark Spitz for 36 years now," Thompson said. "I don't know if I'm going to be alive when they stop talking about this bloke. You wonder if we are going to see someone as good as this again."
After Spitz's performance in 1972, there surely were folks who believed an unattainable record had just been set, that no one would ever collect so many gold medals at a single Olympics. But that merely set a new target for everyone.
Phelps was the one who finally hit the bull's-eye.
"Being able to have something like that to shoot for, it made those days when I was tired and I didn't want to be there ... it made those days easier to look at (Spitz) and say, `I want to do this,'" Phelps said. "I'm just thankful for him having done what he did."
Somewhere, there's probably a child who will head to the pool a little early to get started on his dream of winning nine gold medals.
Phelps surely hopes so. Every chance he gets, he talks of wanting to raise the sport's profile in the U.S., where it barely gets noticed in non-Olympic years outside of neighborhood swim meets. He was the star attraction in Beijing, drawing huge television ratings back home — where the morning finals could be shown live
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Michael Phelps was born on June 30, 1985 to Fred and Debbie Phelps. (Click here for today's sports birthdays.) His parents already had two daughters, Hilary and Whitney. The family lived in Maryland, just outside of Baltimore. Fred was a state trooper, and Debbie was a middle-school teacher who was twice named Maryland’s “Teacher of the Year.”
Fred was a good athlete, and passed his ability on to his kids. All three got into swimming at an early age. Hilary showed real promise, particularly in the butterfly, but eventually gave up the sport. Whitney stuck with it much longer. One of the better swimmers in her area, she tried out for the U.S. Olympic team in 1996 at the age of 15. Michael was among those in attendance to cheer her on. When Whitney didn't qualify, he was left devastated like the rest of the family. Ultimately, her career was cut short by a series of herniated disks.
Michael learned a lot from his sisters, particularly the value of hard work. Hilary started swimming the year he was born, and Michael spent many afternoons in a stroller watching her practice. He eventuall followed both sisters into the pool, though initially with great hesitancy. As a seven-year-old, he refused to put his face in the water. Sensing Michael’s fear, his instructors allowed him to float around on his back. No surprisingly, the first stroke he mastered was the backstroke.
One of the turning points for Michael came when he saw swimmers Tom Malchow and Tom Dolan compete at the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta. The 11-year-old began to dream of becoming a champion himself.
By then, Michael’s home life had changed drastically. After years of fighting, his parents divorced. High school sweethearts, they had separated before Michael was born, gotten back together, and then split for good in 1992. The kids went to live with Debbie. Michael grew very close to his mother, while Fred did what he could to keep a foothold in his children’s lives. Today Michael has very little contact with his father.
A new male presence entered Michael’s life in 1996. He had started his swimming career at Towson’s Loyola High School pool. But when it became clear he needed better facilities and more professional coaching, he moved on to the North Baltimore Aquatic Club at the Meadowbrook Aquatic and Fitness Center. There he met Bob Bowman. The coach recognized Michael’s potential immediately.
Bowman told Debbie that her son was a rare talent. Long-limbed with big hands and feet, he took to instruction very well, loved to work hard and never seemed nervous in competition. In fact, Michael’s only “shortcoming” was the tremendous growth spurt he was experiencing. On some days, it tended to cause fatigue.
Michael’s competitive fire burned intensely. He hated to lose, and reacted angrily on the odd occasions when he did. Once Michael flung his goggles away in disgust after finishing behind a swimmer of the same age. Bowman pulled him aside, and warned him never to act that way again.
Outside of his swimming career, Michael was a normal teenager. He rooted for Baltimore sports teams, read books on sports heroes like Lance Armstrong and Vince Lombardi, and usually fell asleep with the family cat, Savannah, curled up next to him. He didn’t like getting out of the bed in the morning, but refused to slow down once his day began. He tried his hand at baseball (as a catcher and shortstop), soccer and lacrosse as a youngster. When he entered Towson High School, Michael toyed with the idea of going out for football, and later played on the golf team.
He is the greatest in Olympic 2008
that right...that right...Fred is good athlete.
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