Michael Phelps is trying to do something no one else has ever done – win eight gold medals at the Olympics. The latest issue of ESPN The Magazine has a great article outlining the challenges standing in his way (and how Phelps plans to overcome them).
Threats will come from all sides. Some will grab him, strangle him while he swims. Some will wait until the lights have dimmed and the fans have left. Every threat will eat at his energy and strength, until he comes up for air after his final race and realizes that his threats—or his dreams—are gone.
Swimming might never be wildly popular in America. But for those who consider sports a test of human limits, there may be no more impressive feat than what Michael Phelps will do over nine days in August. He will swim eight finals (five individual, three relays) and 17 races overall, including prelims and semis, in a quest to become the only Olympic athlete to win eight gold medals at a single Games. Football, basketball, hockey and baseball players rest not only after games, but during games. Tennis and soccer players get days off between matches. Boxers get months. But Phelps? Phelps will burn a marathon’s worth of calories in the pool every day for nine days, on his way to swimming more than 30 miles. He will weaken with every minute, stroke and breath. The threats will not.
THREAT 1: PAIN
Phelps begins with the most difficult event: swimming’s decathlon, the 400 individual medley. The race begins with 100 meters of butterfly, in which he must propel his body out of the pool, over and over, until he feels as if he’s doing squat jumps with two kids on his back. The fly requires an edge, almost an anger. “You have to be tougher, meaner,” says 1992 gold medalist Mel Stewart. “If you don’t have a base of strength and stamina, you fade. You die.”
If you’re interested in Phelps’ quest, it’s a great read.
