The medal ceremony for the 200-meter butterfly was over, and it would be only 20 minutes until Michael Phelps, the event’s winner, would swim the opening leg of the 800-meter freestyle relay.
Despite the obvious press of time, he refused to hurry. Phelps remained on the podium and posed for photographers with the other medal winners.
He smiled and waved and held up his medal before stepping down to begin the parade along the pool deck with Takashi Yamamoto of Japan and Stephen Parry of Britain.
Escorts dressed in traditional Greek garb were there to move them along quickly, but they wouldn’t influence Phelps anymore than the quick turnaround he faced.
He was intent on enjoying the moment and stopped to pose with the others for a group of photographers at the far end of the pool. After a few more steps they stopped again to acknowledge the fans calling to them from the poolside stands.
Phelps made four more stops before he disappeared behind the stands, slipped through a guarded fence and headed to the ready room to prepare for his next swim.
In a matter of minutes he reappeared–refocused, re-energized–and swam a powerful opening leg to give his U.S. team a lead it would never lose on its way to an emotional victory.
“I’m having a blast,” Phelps said, and he said it often during a most amazing week in Athens. His constant, incandescent smile supported that contention.
The 19-year-old from Baltimore was trying to make history, and he did, winning six gold medals and eight overall. He was juggling an unwieldy schedule–14 races in seven days. He was dogged by enormous pressure, tugged at from all sides and under the microscope every moment he was in public view.
And yet he not only performed remarkably, he also had fun, and that might have been his greatest accomplishment of all.
More Top Picks Best Electric Fireplaces
Countless athletes have cracked under demands far less daunting than those Phelps faced in Athens. Or they have turned churlish and testy and into mere shadows of their former selves.
Fun? Are you kidding?
But Phelps would not be deterred.
Before these Games began, Mark Spitz was the only male swimmer to collect more than two individual golds in a single Olympics. Phelps’ four matched Spitz’s total.
Before these Games began, Soviet gymnast Aleksandr Dityatin was the only athlete to win eight medals in a single Olympics. Phelps matched him as well when the heavily favored U.S. medley relay team won its race in world-record time Saturday night.
He may not have equaled the seven total gold medals Spitz picked up in Munich, but Phelps was almost a nation unto himself: In the 2000 Games at Sydney, only 13 of the 199 countries that competed won more than six gold medals. Only 26 of them won more than eight medals overall.
“When you win a gold medal, you have to be [drug] tested. Every time you win any medal you have to be tested,” said Erik Vendt, runner-up to Phelps in the 400-meter individual medley.
“So he hasn’t been getting to bed until midnight every night. When you have to be up at 7, 7:30 over the course of an eight-day meet, it’s going to take a toll. The fact that he can adapt to that consistently day after day and win gold medals and set world records, that’s amazing.
“We’re all world-class here. But he’s 10 steps above us.”
His teammates were in awe of Phelps’ effort and demeanor and not at all resentful of the attention lavished on him. Suggestions that he somehow “failed” because he didn’t match Spitz’s gold-medal haul irked them.
“To try to make the story that he’s a failure–he’s not,” backstroker Aaron Peirsol said. “He’s the greatest swimmer in the world right now. He’s incredible, unbelievable.
“What he’s done is really spectacular in this day and age. To come away with eight medals, that really is the Spitzian accomplishment of our age.”
Phelps seemed to have a handle on the comparisons once his third-place finish in the 200-meter freestyle made it impossible for him to match Spitz.
“I tried to do something he did and I didn’t,” Phelps said. “I had an opportunity. But it’s an honor winning one Olympic gold medal. I came in wanting to do that, and it’s definitely something I’ll remember.”
He had attempted to make history, which was admirable in itself, and he hadn’t. The disappointment might have shattered a lesser competitor, but never once did Phelps buckle.
One of his teammates, Ian Crocker, became sick in Athens and swam an anemic opening leg in the 400 freestyle relay. Phelps stayed healthy.
Another teammate, Jason Lezak, lazed through his preliminary heat in the 100 freestyle and failed to advance to the semifinals. Phelps never made that mistake, or any other.
Teammate Brendan Hansen, holder of two world records in the breaststroke, failed to win either of his individual events and later complained about the pressure he felt. Phelps remained immune to that pressure.
“Our trials are at a very high level, but this is another animal,” Bob Bowman, Phelps’ personal coach and an assistant on the men’s team, said of the Olympic routine. Phelps handled it all.
On Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, he competed twice in the 90-minute evening session and never did he fail, no matter how hectic things became.
Thursday he swam the 200 individual medley at 8:18, received his gold medal at 8:41 and swam a heat in the 100 butterfly at 8:55.
“The most difficult part of it is Michael gets out of a swim, which is emotionally and physically draining, he’s huffing and puffing, and someone grabs him and immediately rushes him upstairs,” Bowman said. “The second he’s there it’s, `Drink this, eat this, go here, get in, swim, stop.’ You never get a minute to collect yourself.
“It’s very hectic in a very short period of time for him, for everyone around him, and he has to live with us kind of pushing him through that whole time.”
Phelps said he readied himself for a hectic schedule, for the demands on his time, for the uncertain logistics and any other challenges Athens might present.
“It’s something you have to deal with, get by it and handle it the best you can,” he said. “One of the things we’ve stayed on top of is making sure I’m eating right, trying to stay healthy. . . . Sometimes I have a tough time getting to sleep at night, my adrenaline’s so high, but it’s all part of it, part of the fun.”
Phelps disdained celebrity and was one of the guys in the Olympic Village, eating pizza and pasta and vowing to have double cheeseburgers when his competitions were over.
He listened to Eminem’s “Till I Collapse” on his iPod before races, and at the medal ceremonies that inevitably followed, he removed the laurel wreath from his head during the national anthem and held it over his heart.
He qualified for a medal in the 400-meter medley relay by swimming the butterfly leg in the semifinal and then graciously stepped aside, letting Crocker replace him so he, too, could win a medal.
More Top Picks Best Stretching Machines For Flexibility
He appeared for his interviews at the appointed times, fulfilling an obligation that many athletes loathe. And no matter how many times he heard the same questions, he was smiling and laughing and clearly relishing the whole experience.
“I haven’t seen him that happy in a while,” Bowman said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him that happy.”
Nothing could alter his mood, certainly not a third-place finish behind Ian Thorpe and Pieter van den Hoogenband in the 200-meter freestyle.
“Being an Olympic bronze medalist, that’s an honor as well,” Phelps said. “Having the third-fastest time in the world . . . wow!”
He had challenged himself, set off on a great adventure, shot for the moon, and if he landed short it didn’t matter. He still ended up in the stars, the journey having exceeded all expectations.
“What Mark Spitz did was an unbelievable accomplishment,” Phelps said. “Once you get to this meet, it’s so emotionally draining and you have to swim fast every single night. You have to do everything you can, you have to be ready for morning and you have to swim fast. It is definitely much more emotionally draining at a level like this.
“Being in this environment here, it’s a hard thing to do. But you definitely don’t want to count anything out.”
Michael Phelps will be 23 in Beijing in 2008.
“I definitely wouldn’t count anything out,” he said.