KEY POINTS:
Even if you don't care for swimming, or are heartily sick of hearing his name, tune in today and again tomorrow afternoon as Michael Phelps makes Olympic history.
Two victories will give him eight gold medals, more than anyone at a single Games. This week he became the
greatest gold medal Olympian of all. He has 12 and will finish with 14.
Mathematically Phelps could be stopped. After all, seven others will line up in today's 100m butterfly final _ world recordholder Ian Crocker, the only man to have swum the distance quicker than Phelps among them _ and seven teams will line up in tomorrow's final race of the meet, the 4x100m medley, who could be the poopers of the American party.
But seriously? The relay would seem in the bag, unless one of the American quartet jumps the gun, as happened to New Zealand's 4x200m freestyle relay this week.
Before leaving New Zealand, a colleague scoffed at the idea that Phelps could win eight gold medals in Beijing. His view, and others shared it, was not to quibble that Phelps was anything less than a supremely gifted swimmer, but that China would produce someone to catch him by surprise, or that an Aussie or European, or another American, would pop up and do the job somewhere along the line.
Mark Spitz's Munich, 1972 record of seven gold medals _ all world records _ would remain intact, he maintained.
The contrast between Spitz and Phelps is substantial, apart from their ages. Spitz was 22 in 1972 and Phelps is 23. The latter is popular with his teammates, one of the guys, a young man who lives on a diet to literally die for, just a face in the crowd.
Spitz was a glamorous show pony, strongly disliked by his teammates, who reckoned he indulged in gamesmanship against his fellow American rivals. He had a degree in conceit and was no team player. He also had a knack of putting his hoof right in it. Spitz is Jewish. After the swimming had finished, he told the press: "Actually I've always liked this country, even though this [lamp] shade is probably made out of one of my aunts."
When Phelps was asked if he hoped to become the second Mark Spitz, he replied: "No. I want to be the first Michael Phelps."
It's good the swimming is coming to an end. The world's aquatic supermen and women have not so much inched the bar up but given it a mighty shove. And Phelps has been the arrowhead. There is only so much you can take of one man's domination of a meet awash in world records.
We have seen a swimmer not merely win races by a fingertip, not nab a world mark by a few hundredths of a second. Phelps has won by body lengths and given records a severe kicking. It's taken 36 years. Be sure to be watching. It will be a very long time before you see his like again.
