Greatest Olympian' Phelps remembers Singapore

Thursday, 21 August 2008

BEIJING - He walked in as the sounds of U2’s Vertigo crashed off the walls and shivered the glass panes around the Omega Pavilion.

His image beamed out of countless small television screens behind him, and the electric entry of swimming’s greatest star would surely have got the nod of approval from Bono and The Edge.

It’s about the only way to introduce Michael Phelps these days.

He’s so big even Bruce Springsteen stopped in the middle of a concert last Saturday in the United States to tell the fans: “Michael Phelps has just won gold number 7.”

The Boss never, ever, stops a live performance for anyone, except for swimming’s Zeus.

Now we know.

After turning the Water Cube in Beijing into his own playground to win eight gold medals, the athletic giant so many are calling the greatest Olympian of all time was paraded by his sponsors Omega at the Olympic Green here on Wednesday, with team-mates Natalie Coughlin and Katie Hoff and Games greats Alexander Popov and Ian Thorpe.

The Emperor was at ease mingling with kings Alexander the Great and the Thorpedo. At only 23, he has already performed the greatest feat in Olympic history with the most prolific haul of 14 gold medals.

After bettering Mark Spitz’ haul of seven golds at the Munich Olympics in 1972 by one here at the 2008 Games, Phelps is talking legacy these days.

He is set to reap millions after capping his astonishing adventure over the last few months with a spectacular finale, but he says his story is also for swimming’s sake.

He’s had enough seeing his sport come alive only once every four years.

It looks like there will be room for Singapore in his tale.

As the superstar walked an audience of selected media through his gold-paved journey on Wednesday, he brought up pictures of his time in Singapore, where the American swimming team were training prior to their arrival in Beijing.

There were shots of his trip to the Night Safari, “where we got to see lions and tigers”, he said.

There were pictures of Phelps in his suite on board the Singapore Airlines A380 bound for Beijing, “with the coolest facilities and that giant bed, man”, he gushed.

“These have been exciting times and I have so many memories from the last few months,” he added. “They are memories I will keep forever.”

In the memory-making business he has left us with so many priceless moments it could well be an unfair trade-off.

He thrilled us day after day flying through the water during the first week of the Olympics, to leave Thorpe with egg on his face, after Australia’s hero wrote off Phelps’ chances of winning eight golds 48 hours before the opening ceremony on August 8.

The former champion, who won five Olympic golds in all, on Wednesday tried to blame the whole episode on miscommunication.

“It’s not what I said,” he insisted, a little uncomfortably with Phelps sitting right next to him.

“I know anything can be done.

“I said Michael would not be able to do it only because of the competition.

“I think luck plays a role, and you look at the 4x100m freestyle relay against the French, it was very lucky, and in the 100 butterfly.

“But what Michael has done is wonderful. Never in my life did I think I would see such an achievement.”

Popov, Russia’s freestyle sprint legend who won four golds over two Games, never had any doubt.

“I was always 100 per cent sure Michael would do it,” said the 36-year-old.

“Everything was down to Michael, it was all about what Michael wanted to do.

“It was up to him and from day one when he won the 400 individual medley, I knew he had everything under control.”

While Phelps will be the first to admit he did have some hairy moments, not for a second were there negative vibes in his head.

“I always thought anything is possible, and it was a matter of getting down to it, working hard,” he said.

“When someone says it is not possible, I like that, it fires me up. It motivates me.

“It’s cool to do it in the end.

“It’s been a crazy few weeks and I can say I’ve been happy to be here.”

The world’s been equally thrilled by his presence.