Phelps Had Mission to Change Swimming, and Did

One by one his rivals formed a handshake line behind the blocks of the London Aquatics Centre on Saturday night and paid homage to the Lord of the Olympic rings, Michael Phelps, who had just collected his 22nd medal, and 18th gold, in his racing finale, the United States men’s 4 x 100 medley relay.

It sounds ludicrous now, but when Phelps set out to become the Tiger Woods of swimming, he had no clue what Mark Spitz had done. Unlike Woods, who kept a tally, like a to-do list, of his golfing idol Jack Nicklaus’s feats, Phelps was looking to the future when he put together the most ambitious Olympic program in the history of his sport.

Before becoming the first swimmer to race in eight Olympic events at the 2004 Games, Phelps was fuzzy on the details of Spitz’s career. It was left to his coach, Bob Bowman, to fill him in on Spitz’s seven-gold-medal performance at the 1972 Olympics. Similarly, Phelps said he didn’t know until recently about the gymnast Larisa Latynina, who reigned for nearly five decades as the most decorated Olympian with 18 medals.

Some architects of history work from a blueprint and others, like Phelps, do not want to acknowledge any ceiling. Phelps transformed swimming, inspiring a generation at home and abroad, by building an audacious program out of grit, guts and a geek’s burning desire to make swimming cool for kids all over the world.

“I wanted to change the sport and take it to another level,” Phelps said.

Mission accomplished. On Saturday, Phelps followed Matt Grevers and Brendan Hansen into the water and 50.73 seconds later, his career over, he gave the anchor, Nathan Adrian, a comfortable lead that he turned into a runaway victory over Japan and Australia.

The drama was in the details: the two cameras set up behind and on either side of Phelps as he stepped to the blocks for his butterfly leg; the hugs with his teammates after the race; the tear-stained faces of his mother and sisters who applauded him from the stands.

Phelps’s 22 medals are a mind-boggling total. If he were a country, he’d rank in the top 60 among countries in the history of the modern Olympics. His 18 golds would put him No. 36, ahead of Argentina.

The monarchy of Michael has loyal subjects far and wide, from Missy Franklin in Denver, Colo., to Chad Le Clos in Durban, South Africa.

Franklin, 17, who competed in seven events here, the most ever by a female Olympic swimmer, owes her ambition to Phelps, who made such a workload seem not only feasible but fun.

“He has done a world of difference for swimming,” Franklin said. “He has really brought swimming onto the scene and gotten so many more people involved. Just what he’s done is incredible and he’s kind of made people rethink the impossible. Rethink what they can do and how they can push themselves.”

Le Clos, 20, said he watched Phelps win six golds and two bronzes at the Athens Olympics and was inspired to become a champion swimmer. It was not a coincidence that Le Clos graced six events here, including the same four individual ones as Phelps. After watching Phelps win a record eight golds in Beijing, Le Clos added more events to his program to Be Like Mike. On Tuesday, he pulled off a monumental upset when handed Phelps his first major international defeat in 10 years in the 200-meter butterfly.

“That’s why I was so emotional afterwards,” Le Clos said. “He was the reason I swam the butterfly. It’s not a joke. If you think about it, it’s kind of crazy.” He added: “That’s why I swim the 200 freestyle, both the I.M.s. I don’t swim it for any other reason than just because Michael does.”

According to Bowman, Phelps got choked up when he heard that he was Le Clos’s hero and role model. “It means Michael’s done what he wanted to do: affect the sport of swimming,” he said. During the meet, Bowman said, a coach from another country approached him and said his swimmers have more of a public following now thanks to Phelps, making the sport more attractive to better athletes.

Just as Le Clos patterned himself after Phelps, there was someone whose career Phelps, or at least, Bowman, studied carefully. The Australian Ian Thorpe won nine Olympic medals and became, in 2004, the first man to medal in the 100, 200 and 400 freestylesin a single Games.Thorpe’s range extended to the 800 freestyle,an event in which he held the world record for over four years.

Thorpe’s versatility got the gears grinding in Bowman’s mind. He sought out Thorpe’s coach and spoke to him at length about what it took for Thorpe to consistently swim so many events so well. They talked about warm-ups and recovery and massage, elements that became part of Phelps’ racing routine.

Bowman since has shared with Franklin’s coach, Todd Schmitz, tips on maximizing performance in multiple events. It’s because of Phelps that swimmers like Franklin think nothing ofwarming down by taking an ice bath to expedite their recovery.

Phelps has no peers in the annals of swimming, but is he the greatest Olympian of all time? Sebastian Coe, a two-time Olympic champion in track and the head of the London Organizing Committee said no. His argument was that swimming, unlike other sports, offers a smorgasbord of individual events and allows its athletes the opportunity to team up on relays, too. True, but here’s something to consider: to earn his 22 medals, Phelps had to race 46 times, counting prelims and semifinals, over three Olympics.

That’s a lot of stress and strain. Ask the Australian freestyle print star James Magnussen, who came into these Games as a gold-medal favorite in the 50 and 100 freestyle, and failed to final in the 50, lost the gold medal in the 100 by one-hundredth of a second to the American Nathan Adrian and led off the Australian 4 x 100 freestyle relay that finished out of the medals in fourth.

“I have a lot more respect for guys like Michael Phelps who can come to the Olympics and back it up under that pressure,” Magnussen said.

In the debate over the greatest Olympian of all time, Coe and other British sports enthusiasts can cast their votes for the rower Steve Redgrave, who won gold medals in five consecutive Olympics, but others, like the Australian Olympian Susie O’Neill, will stump for Phelps.

“The Michael Phelps story is unbelievable,” O’Neill, who won an Olympic medal of each hue in the 200 butterfly between 1992 and 2000, said in an interview with The Sunday Mail in Australia before the Games. “It’s crazy he’s going for three consecutive Olympic golds in four events.”

No man had ever won an individual swimming event in three consecutive Olympics. Phelps did it twice here in the span of 24 hours with victories in the 200 individual medley and the 100 butterfly.

Among those he turned back in the butterfly final was MiloradCavic, the Serb who nearly out-touched him in 2008. “I cannot be compared to Michael Phelps,” Cavic said. “I’m a one-trick pony. He does it all.”

After the 100 butterfly on Friday night, Phelps wrapped his arm around Le Clos, who won the silver. In that moment, a mantle was passed.

“It’s crazy to think he’s retiring,” Le Clos said, “because I’ve always looked up to him. It’s going to be hard to go to a meet and he’s not there.”

Phelps will be gone, but not forgotten. He inspired a generation, and more than all his medals, it’s his greatest legacy.

NYT