KEY POINTS:
There is a body of thought from some critics that there is something ugly or unfair about Michael Phelps' quest for eight gold medals at these Olympics; that it represents something of the excess, overdone commercialism and celebrity-seeking of our modern days.
Phelps gets a chance to make history, the argument goes, because swimming had an overblown programme with too many events and too many similar events.
Phelps was not as great an athlete, the critics sniff, as Paavo Nurmi, the redoubtable Finnish distance runner who won nine Olympic gold medals (and three silver) over a credibility-straining three Olympics and in a wide variety of events ranging from 1500m to 10,000m and the discontinued cross-country event.
Instead Phelps had rather too narrow a focus - essentially able to compete only over 200m and 400m with an occasional 100m race thrown in. There were too many swimming events, more variety was required and the current schedule rewarded athletes of similar builds and talents and tended to be repetitious.
There are some valid points in all that. But no one should be compared to Nurmi as the humourless little Finn was a freak and a true great. He discovered his athletic prowess in the army when he did a 20km march in full kit - including a rifle, cartridge belt and a 5kg pack of sand.
Nurmi asked his officers if he could run. They rather smugly replied that he could - and Nurmi finished the march still running and so quickly that they checked the course to make sure he hadn't discovered a short cut.
His Olympic medals were won between 1920 and 1928 and no one in their right mind would suggest that Phelps' current haul of eight Olympic medals (six gold and two bronze) would in any way equate with Nurmi's feats. Nor would it if Phelps wins all the eight golds he is aiming for and ends up with 14. In my book, Nurmi's is still the greater achievement.
You can't compare across eras and sports, of course, but there is a speck of truth in the contention that swimming might have too many events and that some - like the relays - give a swimmer like Phelps too much of an opportunity to make history.
In fact, you can narrow it down further. Only countries like the US can produce enough talented swimmers to make winning golds in the relays a possibility. If you are Michael Phelps and you are born in Turkmenistan, for example, good luck with your eight golds.
The only Olympic athlete likely to compete with Phelps or any such swimmer would be a gymnast because they win medals for each individual apparatus as well as team events. But even they can't hope to win eight gold medals at a single Olympics.
So what to do? Do we introduce strokes like sidestroke? Dog paddling, perhaps. Or maybe some of sport's discontinued events like the 200m obstacle race where swimmers not only had to navigate the pool but poles, a row of boats and then had to swim underneath another row of boats.
Hardly. So do we cut the relays out? No - there's too much emotion and colour in the relays and these are the races where those who didn't make the individual races have a chance for glory and often turn in outstanding performances.
There's nothing wrong with the current four main strokes and the individual medley. And that's the key. Phelps' first race last night was the 400m individual medley - where all four strokes are combined.
It doesn't make a difference whether it is over 100m, 200m, 400m or whatever. Swimming isn't an expressive sport. It's technique, style and mental strength.
Phelps is possibly the most adaptable and versatile swimmer there has ever been. His world records in the medley attest to that alone. Then chuck in his freestyle and butterfly records and understand that he is only 0.03s off the 100m backstroke world record and 0.33s off the world 200m backstroke record.
He can also win from in front, coming from behind; he can win when put under pressure or by blitzing the field early. Versatility, to be sure.
As head coach of the US swim team Mark Schubert said: "There has been nobody that's been not just as dominant but as versatile. His performance in Melbourne [2007 world championships, seven gold medals, five world records] was the greatest performance of all time."
No, I'm sorry. If he wins eight gold medals, Phelps will have deserved every one of them, even if his relay team-mates should share the success with him instead of being forgotten - as they will be.
Yes, swimming can get a bit repetitious at times - but generally it's more long-time watchers like tired journalists who think so. The fans lap it up.
And if Phelps manages to win eight golds, so will I. Unfair? Hardly. You get in the pool and win eight golds.
