Three Golds in the bank, five more to go for Phelps
August 12, 2008
He finished in 1:42.96, with
Michael Phelps is 3-for-3 in his quest for Gold medals.
Three down, five to go, as Phelps goes for an unprecedented eight golds. ''I'm not even halfway done yet,'' he said. ''The most important ones are really coming up.''
This morning, he goes for two more, in the 200-meter butterfly and 800 relay. And while the focus is on breaking Mark Spitz's record seven golds in one Olympics, Phelps did tie Spitz and a few others in all sports for another record:
He now has nine golds for his career. Someone mentioned that to him after the race. ''Oh,'' Phelps said, ''that's pretty cool.''
Meanwhile, he's starting to relax and loosen up out of the pool and develop a personal flair he hadn't shown until this week. After the medal ceremony Tuesday, he went to the front row of the stands and handed his flowers to his sister, Hillary, who was in tears.
A day earlier, after teammate Jason Lezak saved the day in the 400 relay, Phelps clenched both fists and let out a primal scream that will surely be one of the signature images of the Games. And after winning his first gold, in the individual medley, he nearly started crying during the national anthem.
Phelps is on a grueling schedule, counting preliminary races and finals. He said he has likely two more relays and seven individual swims by Sunday's final race.
''I've been eating a lot of pasta and pizza, a lot of carbs,'' he said. ''Sleeping as much as I can.
''Massages. Ice baths. I probably get two massages a day. So I've been able to recover very well.''
There was no drama in Tuesday's race, as Phelps was 1œ seconds ahead at the halfway mark. Park had beaten Phelps in a preliminary heat in the 200 Monday, but Phelps was widely seen as simply conserving energy. He needed to finish only in the top eight to advance to the final and is in a grueling week.
After the race, though, Park was quoted as saying, ''I will defeat Phelps tomorrow.''
But that lacked the smack talking of the French a day earlier in the relay, who not only predicted a victory over the Americans, but also: ''We will smash them.''
After Tuesday's race, Park seemed to be in awe: ''Phelps swam so fast. It's really fast, and it is my honor to compete with him.
Phelps put the kibosh on any thoughts that he had a problem. He had chills, then finished third in a prelim, then was unimpressive in the relay. On Tuesday, he was back.
''It might be once in a century,'' swimmer Aaron Peirsol said, ''that you see something like this.''
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