Michael Phelps was not even born when Mark Spitz set the record of 7 Gold Medals in a single Olympic.... His parents were not born either when Paavo Nurmi had perhaps the greatest Olympic any athlete had ever had...
It is so tough for us mortals to comprehend the nature of Michael's achievement.... to understand the enormity of this achievement.
Let me try and put it in a perspective.
Carl Lewis won his 9 in 4 Olympics. Paavo Nurmi won his 9 in 3. To compare his achievements with these great athletes would be unfair not only to these great athletes but also to Phelps....
He has not only shown amazing consistency in his preferred fields but also shown amazing will power and hard work to succeed in events he was not considered the best.
Phelps made his debut in 2000 Sydney Olympics, finishing 5th in the 200 metre Butterfly event,when another great swimmer of this generation, Ian Thorpe, was making waves. As a 15 year old not much was expected of him, but no one knew what was in store ahead..He tried surpassing Mark Spitz's record in the Athens games, but fell short. 6 Gold Medals, 2 Bronze.. not bad for a 19 year old... When most of the kids of his generation have many other things on their mind Phelps had just one thing...Swim ... and swim he did..
Beijing 2008 would always be remembered as Phelps's Olympics. The guy from Baltimore not only did the unimaginable of winning 8 gold medals in the single game, but has 14gold medals to his credit.. and at 23 .. no one would doubt his credentials to add to this tally in London 2012.
Beijing 2008 was a journey for me .A journey which i took along with Michael. Every evening starting Aug 10 i tuned onto TV with just one thing on my mind. To see Phelps swim, to see him take this journey of a life time... and what a journey it was...
After 19 swims , 8 Gold Medals ,7 World records the journey has come to an end... but it has been one hell of a ride....
A journey which i dont think would ever be repeated anytime soon in the future..may be it would...may be Michael is already preparing himself for one in London 2012.....till then..Thank you Michael....
2 comments:
really yar... he has shown the world that nothing is impossible if u really want to get it...
i never watched swimming before, but this guy forced me to see this... his awesome gold medal tally...
hats off.....
ya that's an amazing achievement and since I know swimming I can very well experience how hard it is to get to that level...excellent..best of luck to him for 2012..
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