One down, seven to go.
Michael Phelps got off to a blistering start in Bejing, setting a new world record in the 400-meter individual medley. He now needs seven more gold medals to break Mark Spitz’s record of seven in one Olympiad.
“I’m not downplaying this race by any means, but I have to put that race behind me,” Phelps said. “I have to act like it never happened because I have so many tough races ahead of me.”
This was supposed to be one of the toughest, especially after fellow American and good friend Ryan Lochte matched Phelps stroke for stroke at the U.S. Olympic trials just over a month ago. Both went under the previous world record in the 400 IM then, with Phelps touching first in 4:05.25.
But Phelps beat Lochte when it really mattered. Laszlo Cseh of Hungary took the silver in 4:06.16, while Lochte faded to third in 4:08.09 — more than 4 seconds behind.
“Going into the last 50 and looking to my right and seeing that I was ahead of Ryan and Laszlo, I sort of started smiling,” Phelps said.
Phelps is taking a pragmatic approach to his quest for history. It’s dangerous to get too high or too low after any one event when there is so much left to accomplish.
Enjoy the moment and move on to the next task at hand.
