If you needed any perspective on the remarkable achievement of Michael Phelps at the 2008 Bejing Olympics, consider the statistic commentators were making on Sunday. If Phelps were a country he would be 5th in the number of gold medals won at the games. Astounding. Of course there are already detractors (isn't it always the way that when someone makes a great achievement there these people just waiting to take them down a notch or two?) Michael Phelps' sleek and sexy body was probably still wet someone wrote a negative commentary which we read yesterday. In it the writer diminished Phelps' stature as one of the greatest Olympic athletes of all time and he even had the balls to refer to his performance at the Bejing Games as "good, but not great". Sad. Fortunately the editorial seems to have been replaced by athletes and historians who have rightly given Michael Phelps his due. 

 In other words we have a message to all those who will be eager to take away from this historical moment--let Michael Phelps have his day, his glory, his moment in the sun. 


  In 1972 Mark Spitz went into the Munich Olympics with self-assuredness and with a bold prediction that he would win 7 gold medals (something he failed to do 4 years earlier at the Mexico City games when he was younger and cockier and boastful).  Spitz indeed won those 7 gold medals in Munich and had reasonable success in turning his fame to fortune. At the time sports experts predicted that it would be impossible for anyone to duplicate that achievement ever again. 

       

 Now 36 years later, a less audacious young man but bolder in his discipline and drive not only duplicated Spitz' feat, he surpassed it. In only two Olympics Michael Phelps won more gold medals than anyone has ever done before. And he did it with enthusiasm and a refreshing lack of pretentious behavior. Every time we watched his interviews we were struck by his down-to-earth charm. Of course he was well aware of what he had been able to do, but he simply wasn't putting himself up on some lofty pedestal.


 There are many things we liked about Michael Phelps before this all happened and there are more things we've learned over the past week that helped us realize what a fascinating story this all makes. Michael Phelps may not be classically handsome, but his looks have an endearing quality and when he speaks of his mother and sisters his eyes and face become very sweet. There's that remarkable body that is impressive in every way. Of course you can't help but admire his physical beauty but knowing his statistics helped us grasp the full extent of this beauty. When we saw him being interviewed on TV our jaws dropped---you couldn't help but marvel at shoulders that fit the width of the screen. And then there was that analysis of a body genetically perfect for the sport--- 6'4" with huge hands and feet, a long torso, and relatively short thick legs.
 

  Everything seemed to fall into place for Michael Phelps this past week but it was a combination of all of those factors and circumstances as well as strong teammates that catapulted this young man into history. From all indications it looks like Michael Phelps is going to continue swimming until he can't do it physically or mentally. We watched Mark Spitz and Carl Lewis make history before and it may be years before anyone can duplicate what happened this week. But we aren't concerned with that now. We're just content to witness something and someone very remarkable.