hree years ago, U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps was a teenager chasing an Olympic dream. Now, one year from the 2004 Summer Games in Athens, Greece, Phelps is chasing history — the kind of history that would put him alongside swimming legend Mark Spitz.
At the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia, Phelps was a bright-eyed butterfly specialist from Maryland. At 15, he not only was the youngest member of the U.S. team, but also was the youngest U.S. male swimmer since 1932.
In his only event, the 200-meter butterfly, Phelps finished fifth.
Although it wasn’t the most auspicious of debuts, it turned out to be a precursor of greater things for this North Baltimore Aquatics Club product. Since Sydney, Phelps has been on a tear, breaking world record after world record and causing former U.S. Olympic swimmer and current television analyst Rowdy Gaines to predict: “I think he has a legitimate chance to win seven gold medals” in Athens.
Yes, that’s the same magic number associated with Spitz, who mesmerized the world at the 1972 Munich Games when he captured seven gold medals in four individual events and three relays. Perhaps the most impressive part of the achievement was that Spitz, 22 at the time, won all seven gold medals in world-record time.
It’s a feat that had never been accomplished before and hasn’t been duplicated since.
Can Phelps, arguably the best all-around swimmer in the world, be next? If he pulls it off, it will likely be in the following events: the 200- and 400-meter freestyle, 100 and 200 butterfly, 200 and 400 individual medley events and the 400 medley relay. Phelps said he might even race the 800-free relay, rather than one of the middle individual freestyle events.
Whatever the combination, his versatility is already becoming legendary.
“Probably since Mark Spitz, he’s the first guy we have with multiple talents,” says University of Michigan men’s coach Jon Urbanchek, who has been on the U.S. coaching staff for the last three Olympics.
Top U.S. Swimmers for the 2004 Olympics
• Jason Lezak, sprint freestyle
• Michael Phelps and Klete Keller, middle freestyle
• Erik Vendt and Larsen Jensen, distance freestyle
• Aaron Peirsol, Lenny Krayzelburg and Randall Bal, backstroke
• Ed Moses and Brendan Hansen, breast stroke
• Phelps, Tom Malchow and Ian Crocker, butterfly
• Phelps, Vendt and Tom Wilkens, individual medley
Source: USA Swimming
|
With the U.S. Olympic trials next July, Phelps is expected to be the centerpiece of a U.S. squad that’s the deepest in the world, set to head to Athens Aug. 13-29, 2004. Just three months ago, the Americans crushed arch-rival Australia in a head-to-head men’s and women’s meet, though vaunted Aussie Ian Thorpe did not compete.
Earlier this year, USA Swimming announced that the University of Texas’ Eddie Reese will coach the men’s team in Athens.
According to Phelps, the U.S. swimmers are “pretty strong in the 100 and 200 flys, both backstrokes and the 400 IM.” The latter event is dominated by Phelps, Erik Vendt and Tom Wilkens.
Another strength is the 400-medley relay team, which has had a lock on the world record since Sydney.
“We want to separate ourselves this summer,” Phelps told Aquatics International in April, referring to the World Championships in Barcelona July 13-20. “As a team, we’re capable of doing anything. This summer, we could shock some people.”
Ever since Sydney, Phelps has been doing plenty of shocking all by himself.
Six months after those Games and just three months shy of his 16th birthday, he became the youngest swimmer ever to set a world record when he swam the 200 fly in 1:54.92 at the U.S. Spring Nationals. Later that summer at the World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, Phelps won his first international medal and broke his own world record, winning the 200 fly in 1:54.58.
Since then, Phelps has exploded onto the international scene with numerous other record-setting performances.
“If they’re calling Ian Thorpe the best swimmer in the world, I think it’s a mistake,” says American Lenny Krayzelburg, a triple-gold medalist and world-record setter in the 2000 Olympics (100 and 200 backstroke; lead leg in 400 medley relay). Thorpe’s “good in freestyle, but this guy is good all across the board.”
Indeed, Phelps is no longer just that butterfly specialist from Maryland. Consider what he accomplished last August alone, when the United States Olympic Committee named him the athlete of the month:
• Phelps took four events at the Phillips 66 U.S. Summer Nationals in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., highlighted by the 400 individual medley that he won in world-record time (4:11.09), shattering the mark set by compatriot Tom Dolan in 2000. Phelps also won the 200 IM and 100 fly in American-record time and won the 200 fly in U.S. Open-record time.
• Phelps grabbed three gold medals and two silvers at the Pan Pacific Games in Yokohama, Japan, including a world-record-breaking performance in the men’s 400-meter medley relay. Phelps’ fastest fly relay split in history helped break the world record set by the U.S. squad in the 2000 Olympics. Phelps also won the 200 and 400 individual medleys, setting Pan Pacific marks in both events, and won two silvers in the 200 fly and the 800-meter freestyle relay.
This past April, Phelps’ chart-stopping run continued in Indianapolis, where the 6-foot-3, 165-pounder broke his own world record in the 400 IM (4:10.73) during the Duel in the Pool meet between the United States and Australia.
Though it’s just a short year away, Phelps, who turned professional two years ago, is by no means looking ahead to the Olympics. In an April interview, he said his sole focus was the World Championships in Barcelona.
Still, don’t blame Phelps if Athens crosses his mind this summer because he’ll be competing against much of the same elite lineup he’ll likely face in next summer’s Olympics.
“I’ll be swimming back-to-back-back,” Phelps said after shooting a television spot in Los Angeles. “I’ll swim one event every day. In the last Olympics and World Championships, I only swam one event and I was done.
“This summer, I guess, gives me a chance to swim what I’ll be swimming [in Athens]. … I think right now everything is going as planned.”
A year from now, the world will find out if that plan includes a lesson in swimming history.
