Skip to main content

Phelps wins 8

Michael Phelps just won his eighth gold medal of this Olympics, and the 400m medley relay was the seventh race he won with a new world record.

It was such an incredible meet, especially the finishes to the 400m free relay and the 100m butterfly, that it's hard to put in perspective. (With his win over Crocker in '04, with his amazing .01 touch this year, and with his leg of the 400m medley relay just finished, I think Phelps swimming the butterfly for one hundred meters is officially my favorite thing to watch in sports.) The closest I can do to giving this justice is to think of what Mark Spitz said last night on NBC about how the greatest athletes know how to win. I've never been dominant enough at anything to know what that phrase really means, but it's as close as I can come to describing the zone some athletes get in where any victory is possible.

What's amazing is how unsurprising Phelps' triumph was. Yes, my faith faltered during that 100m butterfly, but for most of the week it felt likely that Phelps would win gold eight times. Only one other athlete has lived up to such high expectations in my time as a sports fan, and that was Michael Jordan in his last years on the Bulls. At first I thought Jordan deserves the edge because he did it night in and night out over a period of years, but then I consider Phelps' performances in the 2004 Olympics and 2005 and 2007 Worlds and I'm not so sure. Have you ever seen anyone else this good?

Comments

blaine said…
There aren't very many athletes in the world who are able to handle the type of pressure that Phelps has experienced this last week. He came into the games EXPECTED to win 8 gold medals. (Not to mention the million dollar bonus he was promised form Speedo if he won all 8.) To have that kind of pressure placed on you and still be able to preform when it counts is almost unbelievable. The only other athletes who would be comprable are Tiger and Jordan.
9:31 AM
Mike said…
Tiger! I felt like I might be forgetting someone. He's not as dominant as Phelps and Jordan in that he doesn't win every tournament. He is about as dominant as a golfer can be, though, so he probably does belong on this short list. It's interesting how the sport itself factors in to the question: I can't imagine a soccer player, for instance, could ever achieve the Jordan-Phelps level of dominance. In baseball I've seen pitchers sort of do it ('99 Pedro, for example) but not over several years.

Phelps making $5 million/year seems criminally low to me, and no I am not kidding. I was kind of surprised when I heard about the $1 million bonus, because it's not very much compared to the feat. On the other hand I wonder what he does for Speedo's bottom line, as just about anyone who would care to own any of their products probably already does. I just feel glad I'm not the parent of a high-school swimmer now, as he/she would probably be hassling me to buy him/her one of those fancy new suits.
4:40 PM
Mike said…
My friend on the phone just mentioned Lance Armstrong, another one I forgot. He's another good example, to go out and win the Tour so many years in a row with everyone cheating and gunning for him...hmmmm, I'm not sure where to rank Lance.
9:42 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The NFL hates you.

It's no joke. It seems like the more devoted of a fan you are, the less the league cares about your continued patronage. The best example is the league's blackout policy, a wonderful gift from the league to its teams granting them added market pressure to charge whatever ridiculous amount they want for tickets. If a game doesn't sell out, the home market doesn't get to watch it on TV. (Basically, a 75-mile radius around the stadium doesn't get to see the game on TV if all the tickets aren’t bought first.) The NFL, like a needy girlfriend, says, "Hey, fans, you like us? Prove it." Then the league asks us to prove it again and again, week after week, year after year. I live within 75 miles of what should be John Elway Stadium, but Broncos fans are pretty much shielded from this stuff, right? Not all of them. One of my friends is as supportive a fan as the NFL can have: he's a Broncos season ticket holder and an NFL Sunday Ticket subscriber. That mean...
4 comments
Read more

An innocent mistake

Sorry. Here I am to catch up on a few things from the past week... 1. Vince Young will be on the cover of Madden 08. Good for him, I guess. Much is made of the Madden curse. It's not a self-fulfilling prophecy, but it almost feels like one. The real problem is that a) football is a very violent game, and b) Electronic Arts typically selects a cover athlete who's already very well-known. Unfortunately, the players are therefore often a year (Shaun Alexander) or more (Ray Lewis) off their actual prime, and old enough that a serious injury is more likely. Young is an up-and-comer, and to avoid a horrible pun let's just say he has less age than most of those guys. I think he'll be fine. 2. Of course, the reason EA went with such a youthful player is that superstar Chargers back LaDainian Tomlinson turned them down . Why? Money. No surprise that'd be a point of contention, considering how "generous" EA is with its regular employees . 3. That's why re...
5 comments
Read more

Super Bowl XLVI revealed!

The Patriots and the Giants. Things just work out sometimes. * * * Two new teams, the England Patriots and the York Giants, will play for the NFL title in Super Bowl Forty-Six in two weeks. I can't wait. The matchup comes too late, and after too imperfect of a season, to make up for the wounds inflicted by the Giants in early 2008. The Patriots' undefeated season, a 16-0 masterpiece in which they set the league's single-season scoring record, broke at the hands of the upstart Giants in that year's Super Bowl. The way the Giants won made their win feel especially flukish...Eli Manning, known more for his entitled attitude than his athleticism (the only player to which his moves have ever been compared favorably is his brother Peyton), somehow scrambled free of a Patriot pass rush in the closing minutes, and lofted a pass down the middle of the field to David Tyree, who caught the key throw against the top of his helmet. Then a touchdown pass to Plexiglass provided the wi...
3 comments
Read more