Great Eight: Phelps Sets Olympic History

Posted Aug 16, 2008 11:15PM By JJ Cooper (RSS feed)

Filed Under: USA

As you probably heard last week, the number eight is considered the luckiest number in China. People pay thousands of RMB to get cell phone numbers or license plates with eights in them. It's why the games began at 8:08 p.m. on 8/8/08. It's even part of the reason that Beijing made such a push to land the '08 games.

So it's only fitting that Michael Phelps set his unfathomable record in Beijing. Eight races, eight gold medals. He's the only Olympian ever to do it, and we all knew that it was coming.

Usually sports greatest moments are great because they are so unexpected. It's a impossible catch by David Tyree, or Michael Jordan's hanging jumper at the buzzer, or Tiger Woods hitting an impossible shot.

This was different. We knew it was coming. We knew it was likely that Phelps would become history's greatest Olympian tonight, but it just added to the anticipation.

"What he did today beats the Tour de France, it beats a pressure putt in the U.S. Open, it beats every part of what sport is. Every single athlete in the world needs to tip their hat to Michael Phelps, because what he did is simply amazing," Brendan Hansen said to NBC as soon as the event was over,

Four years after he fell two races short, Phelps swam the perfect Olympics. It didn't matter whether he had a leaky goggle, or needed an impossible finish in a relay. And even when it came down to a fingernail's difference, Phelps always figured out a way to get the gold.

So with every nook, cranny, seat and standing spot of the Water Cube filled, Phelps cemented his already amazing legacy as the greatest swimmer, and arguably the greatest Olympic athlete of all time.

And it's cool that the final event was a relay. While this was an individual record, Phelps got plenty of help from his teammates. With Phelps swimming for the Olympics biggest record, his teammates were not going to let him down. So Hansen, a disappointment in his individual races, swam a great leg of the relay, giving Phelps the handoff neck and neck with Australia. That's all Phelps needed, as he blew away the field during his 100 meters with an amazing 50.1, handing Jason Lesak a body length lead on Australia. The hero of the 4X100 freestyle wasn't about to give that up, so less than a minute later, Phelps had his eighth gold. He also had his seventh world record of the Olympics as well.

Who knows if eight is lucky or not, but we do know that it sure is great.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

8-16-2008 @ 11:37PM

MisterC said...

Did anyone see the first words the cameras caught Phelps say after the win?

"Thank you."

That's awesome.

8-16-2008 @ 11:54PM

ERIC B said...

THIS WAS THE GREATEST FEAT IN OLYMPIC HISTORY AND I AM HONORED AND GLAD I WAS ABLE TO WATCH IT. I AM EVEN PROUDER THAT HE IS FROM MARYLAND AND I AM ALSO. Michael Phelps IS THE GREATEST OLYMPIC ATHLETE OF ALL TIME PERIOD. GO USA.

8-17-2008 @ 12:14AM

d.stro said...

As opposed to Usain Bolt who celebrated before the race was even over and then continued dancing down the track. Congrats Michael and thanks for acting like an Olympian should.

8-17-2008 @ 12:56AM

L. Allen said...

WOW!!! I have no words. Michael you should be so proud. I know I am, thanks for a great Olympics. With so much wrong in the world, this was so uplifting, a feat we may never see again. Congratulations to you and your family.

8-17-2008 @ 2:29AM

Buvi Duvi said...

He is a great person. And the greatest Olympian of all time. He is up there with Jordan as the greatest american athlete, but I think MJ wins by a nose.

8-17-2008 @ 3:35AM

reeseman0 said...

I've enjoyed this kid's hydro-heroics as much as anyone. Well, not as much as his MOTHER, who employed her trademark Foghorn Leghorn exhortations from the stands again tonight.

What may have demonstrated why Phelps is, besides the obvious, a champion and class act on dry land as well as in the drink, was when he presented dear ol' Mom with a bouquet of roses before the race. She was bawling, and seconds prior to the start of the race, Michael was barely able to hold off on havin' his ownself a good, long cry. Joy? Sure. Totally wiped? You betcha.

At one point following the race, NBC was glued to 'Da Phish' ~ I turned to my wife and said, "Is he really THAT freakin' tired, or is it overly-enhanced with that Super-Stupor Oh-So-Slo-Mo they got?"

The kid musta yawned for a good 35 seconds or so. ONE. Yawn, I mean...

A TELLING MOMENT: The camera showed Mikey's mom as Phelps ended a length ahead of the field, and left it to 32-year-old (that's 224 in "dog years") Jason Lesak to bring it home. Mom had been true to her established cheering pattern, with the Selma Diamondesque, "GO MICHAEL... GO MICHAEL... GO MICHAEL!" But, when Phelps pulled himself up out of the water and Lesak knived his way, it became, "GO JASON! GO JASON!! GO JASON!!!"

All the world would have forgiven her, if instead, she'd continued shouting her son's name to the finish. It made me feel as though she was truly interested in Jason's performance, and that he too receive all the encouragement he might need to hold the lead and secure the victory.

I know Michael 'Da Phish' Phelps is THE story as far as NBC is concerned. That doesn't mean he's the ONLY one. Jason Slesak swam HIS fanny off too.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Slesak's performance the two times he anchored the team to solid gold were awe-inspiring.

I could be wrong, but isn't the fact Slesak INCREASED the one-stroke lead he inherited from Da Phish to three ~ and ultimately held it to two-and-a-half at the finish ~ shouldn't that count for something? Why couldn't they have told us Jason's time, just as they had told us Michael's was 51 secs? I think I know why.

I'll bet it was faster. And, having already heard the "discontent of the muttering class," with, "Yeah, the kid's great. But, if he's THAT great, why is that OTHER guy ~ you know, the old dude~ swimming the last leg? That gives me pause in this GREATEST OLYMPIAN EVER debate."

Really? 'Cause the kid's a swimmer, right? And, as I heard more than one clueless sports reporter moan this week: "Everybody swims. If it's something EVERYONE does, what's the big deal?"

Let's take it one by one.

"Everybody swims?" Uh, not by a long shot. Even a wildly overreaching comment such as, "Well, at least everyone has the opportunity to swim, right?"

Not in countries where water is an endangered resource, no. And not in this country at times either. When I was growing up in Jackson, MS, the public pools were shut down for the better part of my childhood. I turned 10 in 1966, in the heart of Dixie.

Because the Supreme Court was making social policy(!) in those days, after the local "powers-that-be" were acting like "powers-that-never should've-had-the-authority-in-the-first-place," trying to be politically-faultless by drawing up "pool-sharing" plans, etc., they eventually threw up their hands and let the courts decide. At least THEY weren't bothered by any nuance of the situation, or by considerations of what COULD work, they just shut 'em down.

Of course, nobody ever asked the kids. Personally, I never believed it when Cathy Bishop's freak mom told all the kids if they shared the same pool with, as she called them, those 'niggras' ~ that we, too would turn black. And/or die of some horribly painful, brain-melting disease. Which, apparently, you could only get from black people. You know. Just from sharing the same pool water.

Another mother, a real whack job if ever there was one, spread the vile rumor that blacks DID NOT pee in the pool. They shat in it.

Personally? I DID pee in the pool. So I felt I had no room to talk, ya know?

Anyway, I was fairly athletic: baseball, hoops, running, tennis. But, partly due to the closings, and partly due to the fact swimming is 'work' while I thought of the others as 'play,' it was not an activity I enjoyed much.

When I was in college, I had buddies on the UGA swim team. Not only were they some of the strongest, fastest and most flexible jocks I'd known, most were smart, good students... and definitely "gold-medal material" when it came to partying.

Man, oh man. Those guys were, in a word: Non-stop.

Word to Wild Bill Miller, wherever you may be. "Cheers!"

I'd have liked to see NBC do a better job of "thinking on the fly" and handled the post-race jibber-jabber better. Andrea Kramer asked three of the relayers a question or just for a comment.

I'LL GIVE YOU three(3) GUESSES WHO SHE LEFT OUT.

8-17-2008 @ 3:08AM

wally barrett said...

Sad that some Racist must use Phelps win as a stepping stone to bad mouth Mr. Bolt, who is a wondrous Olympian, a Champion and The Fastest Person In The World.

8-17-2008 @ 4:17AM

traycee said...

Watched every one of the wins and was glad to hear micheal say its a team effort.Yay USA

8-17-2008 @ 10:48AM

jesse145 said...

a dream accomplished through hard work and dedication and yet people still find ways to malign his achievements..envy always rears its ugly head

8-17-2008 @ 11:38AM

KatieB. said...

Amazing! I didn't plan to be this interrested in the Summer Games- sure I like to be in the know- BUT men's swimming soon led into other races/competitions for me & I ended up watching practically everything. Just the possiblity of Michael Phelps.....just the possiblity made every event worthwhile. It made me want to cheer for everyone. Chinese gymnasts, Zimbabwe swimmers, Jamacian spritners, Romanian marathon runners....GO WORLD! It all felt so good to be so proud of everyone and to think ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE. Thank you Michael Phelps.