Phelps Proves Human After All
The crowd at
the Olympic Aquatics Centre arrived late, as if they were trying to stall off
the inevitable. Anyone with a prized ticket to the first big showdown of the
London Games had to know Michael Phelps was in trouble earlier in the day when
he barely qualified for the final of the event he owns two gold medals in.
That was a
shocker, but what happened Saturday night in the Olympic pool was simply
mystifying. No self-respecting London bookie would have even dared to lay odds
that the greatest swimmer in the world - no, make that the greatest swimmer
ever - wouldn't even win as much as a bronze medal in his first race in these
games.
The great
swimming showdown to open the Olympics was a giant bust - unless, of course,
your name is Ryan Lochte. The surfer dude from Florida dominated the 400-meter
individual medley from the opening stroke, making an early case for himself as
the face of swimming in these games while thrashing a guy he never used to be
able to beat.
And in the
process, Lochte may have shattered the Phelps mystique once and for all.
Untouchable
in Beijing. Oh, so human in London.
This wasn't
just a loss, it was a blowout. By the time Phelps finally touched the wall in
fourth place, Lochte had been resting there for more than 4 seconds - an
eternity in swimming.
What followed
next was almost as revealing. While Lochte celebrated, Phelps climbed slowly
from the pool, like it was a chore just to make it out. He then trudged off to
answer a few questions from reporters and try to figure out where it all went
wrong.
Worn out
already, and six races still to go.
"It was
just a crappy race," Phelps said by way of explanation "I felt fine
the first 200, then I don't know."
Not
surprising, if only because the athlete is always the last one to know. At age
27 Phelps has a lot of mileage under his long arms, a lot of history to have to
live up to. He's been swimming for medals since the 2000 Olympics in Sydney and
seemed almost giddy when he tweeted on Friday that he had finished his last practice
as a competitive swimmer.
Maybe he
didn't have the fire inside for training. Maybe he's starting to slow just a
bit from the wear and tear.
Or maybe he
just had what he claims he had - a bad day.
Lochte would
be among those interested in finding out. He once lost 17 straight races in the
200-meter individual medley to Phelps, and the two meet Wednesday in that race
in their only other confrontation in the games.
"I'll
tell you what, it's weird. It's weird not having Michael next to me on the
medal stand," Lochte said. "Michael to me is still one of the world's
greatest ... and no matter what happens he'll go down as one of the world's
greatest."
Phelps was
always taking a chance that he might be swimming in one Olympics too many,
surely one 400-meter IM too many after declaring four years ago that his win in
that event would be his last. The draw of these games was too much, though,
with a chance to add to his haul and become the all-time greatest medal winner
in Olympic history.
He's got
plenty of races left to do that, if things remain according to plan. Six in
all, and all he needs is three medals to surpass the record of 18 won by Soviet
gymnast Larisa Latynina. There's a chance he can even add to his total of 14
gold medals, which is five more than the second-best number on the list.
"The
biggest thing now is to try to look forward," Phelps said. "I have a
bunch of other races, and hopefully we can finish a lot better than how we
started."
It's not
going to hurt his legacy if he doesn't. That's already encased in gold, the six
he won in Athens and the record eight he grabbed in Beijing, when he set
Olympic records almost every day. He surpassed Mark Spitz there to claim the
title of best swimmer ever, and it's going to be a long time, if ever, before someone
takes it from him.
Spitz took
his seven medals and retired, content to make a living off his brilliant
performance in Munich. Phelps has made a pretty good living himself, despite
the fact he's an introvert with little charisma until the moment he gets into
the water.
He came back
for one last Olympics expecting great things because, well, he's always done
great things. Aside from his first Olympics - when he was a 15-year-old
qualified in just one event - he won medals in every Olympic race he had ever
been in before Saturday night. The total was both staggering and historic - 14
gold and two bronze in 16 races - so much so that he makes the short list of
any compilation of greatest Olympians ever.
That's what
made it so hard to watch for a crowd that, once it arrived, was pumped for one
of the hottest matchups of the games. Phelps didn't exactly flounder in the
water, but he fell behind early to Lochte and then was passed by two other
swimmers before finally finishing in 4:09.28, well off the world record of
4:03.84 he set in China.
It's too
early to declare him finished, too soon to say he's washed up. But there's a
crack in the facade, something that should give hope to anyone competing
against him over the next week.
"A lot
of people say Michael is inhuman, but you know what?" Lochte said.
"He's just like all of us."
He wasn't in
Beijing, hasn't been for a long time.
All it took
was one night at the pool in these Olympics to change that. Copyright
Associated Press
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