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Phelps, Michael
June 30, 1985 –
Swimmer
In a career that
began only four years ago, the swimming sensation Michael Phelps has
proven to be a world-beater. The list of his achievements is a
dizzying parade of firsts and other stunning performances, and as a
result he has brought new excitement and attention to a sport
generally eclipsed in the U.S. by several others, among them baseball,
basketball, and football. With the approach of the
2004 Olympic Games, in Athens, Greece, Phelps has become one of
America's most talked-about athletes and one of its brightest hopes
for winning gold medals; some swimming enthusiasts and other observers
believe that he has a chance to tie or break the American swimming
legend Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals at a single Olympic
Games, set in 1972 in Munich, Germany. Calling Phelps "swimming's
wonder boy," Michael E. Ruane wrote for the Washington Post
(April 18, 2004) that Phelps
is not just a remarkable teenage talent but the "most dominant swimmer
in the world." His coach has likened Phelps to a musical virtuoso, and
the Canadian writer and swimming expert Cecil Colwin has compared him
to the late Russian ballet legend Rudolf Nureyev.
Phelps's ascent began in 2000, when he became, at 15 years of age,
the youngest male in more than 60 years to qualify for any U.S.
Olympic team. The following year he became the youngest male in modern
history to break a world record and one of the youngest American male
athletes ever to turn professional. At the 2003 World Championships,
in Barcelona, Spain, Phelps became the first swimmer in history to set
five individual world records at one international meet. At the U.S.
Olympic trials in July 2004, he emerged as the first U.S. swimmer ever
to qualify for the right to compete in six individual events at the
Olympic Games. Overall, he is a five-time swimming world champion and
a winner of 15 U.S. national championships. He has held 11 swimming
world records and 17 American records. As of mid-July 2004, he was the
current world-record holder in the 200-meter butterfly (1.53.93-one
minute, 53 and 93 one-hundredths of a second), 200-meter individual
medley (1.55.94), and 400-meter individual medley (4.8.41), and the
American-record holder in six different events, including the
200-meter butterfly and 200-meter freestyle. In addition, the
hard-training and never-satisfied Phelps has set more than 40 national
age-group records in seven different swimming events. Regarding the
enormous buzz that Phelps has generated, the American swimmer Lenny
Krayzelburg, who won two gold medals at the 2000 Olympics, in Sydney,
Australia, told Diane Pucin for the Los Angeles Times (May 24,
2004), "I know this sounds a little crazy, but I am not thinking of
Michael in terms of being one of the greatest swimmers ever. I am
thinking of him as one of the greatest athletes ever. . . . What he is
doing is amazing. . . . When you have someone like Michael come along
in a sport which doesn't get all the attention it can only be good."
Among other honors, Phelps was named swimmer of the year by U.S.A.
Swimming in 2001 and 2003. In
the latter year he also won the prestigious James E. Sullivan Award.
The only boy among Fred and Debbie
Phelps's three children, Michael Phelps was born near Baltimore,
Maryland, on June 30, 1985.
His parents separated when the children were young; they are now
divorced. Phelps and his sisters grew up with their mother. A big,
strong man, Phelps's father had been an athlete in his youth; he
retired from the Maryland State police in 2004, after more than 25
years of service. He and his son are estranged and are said to see
each other only rarely. Phelps's mother is a former Baltimore County
middle-school teacher who was twice named Maryland teacher of the
year; more recently she worked as a public-school administrator.
Phelps has said that he owes much of his success to her.
Michael E. Ruane wrote that Phelps and
his sisters, Hilary and Whitney, had been raised "by the side of the
swimming pool," and he described the Phelpses as a "talented, driven,
if somewhat fractured, swimming family." As that suggests, all three
children began swimming at a very young age. Hilary, the older sister,
had a special knack for swimming the butterfly but did not stick with
the sport for very long. Having shown even greater swimming potential
than her sister, Whitney began winning medals at competitive races but
was crushed when, as a
15-year-old, she failed to qualify for the 1996
U.S. Olympic swim team. Afterward she stopped swimming altogether.
Hilary and Whitney Phelps reportedly follow their brother's career
with great enthusiasm.
As a child Phelps accompanied his
sisters to the Loyola High School swimming pool, in Towson, Maryland,
and to the Meadowbrook Aquatic and Fitness Center, in Baltimore, which
houses the North Baltimore Aquatic Club (NBAC)-one of the premier
competitive swimming clubs in the country. The NBAC has helped to
train and develop numerous world-record holders as well as 10 Olympic athletes who, together,
have won five gold medals. After learning the basic swimming strokes,
Phelps joined the NBAC. When he was 11 years old, he drew inspiration
from watching on television the American swimmers Tom Malchow and Tom
Dolan win medals at the 1996 Olympics. That same year Bob Bowman, the
NBAC coach, took Phelps's parents aside at the pool and told them that
their son was an "extraordinarily gifted swimmer who had a fabulous
future ahead of him," as paraphrased by Ruane. Bowman has been
Phelps's trainer and coach ever since. "On most days, he's easy to
coach," Bowman told Frank Litsky for the New York Times
(February 11, 2004), "but maybe once every six weeks or six months he
isn't. I think fatigue causes it. When he was young, fatigue was
caused by a growth spurt. He'd be difficult for a week or two. Then
I'd look and he's two inches taller. He's still growing." Describing
the swimmer's physique, Litsky wrote, "The 6-foot-4 1/2 Phelps has an
ideal build for a swimmer: wide shoulders, big chest, narrow waist and
big feet (size 14)."
There are four strokes in competitive
swimming: butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle. The
butterfly, a difficult stroke but one of Phelps's strongest (the event
in which he qualified for the 2000 Olympics and later broke his first
world record), is sometimes described as a "dolphin-like" or
undulating motion. For the butterfly, swimmers propel themselves
facedown through the water by lifting their arms above the surface,
stretching them forward while rotating them at the shoulder, bringing
them together below the surface, and pulling them back through the
water to their hips; simultaneously, they move their hips up and down
and kick. For the backstroke-which is unique, in that one faces the
sky, or the roof of the pool, while performing it-swimmers stretch
their arms behind their heads, parallel with their torsos, then pull
them back through the water in a strong circular motion toward their
hips. The breaststroke involves simultaneously kicking in a frog-like
fashion and moving one's arms through the water in a circular motion,
similar to that of the backstroke, except that one is facedown in the
water. Freestyle (sometimes called the crawl), perhaps the best known
of the four strokes, is often the first that children and adolescents
learn. In freestyle the body
is facedown; the legs scissor-kick up and down; the arms are thrown
straight forward above the water, one at a time, then pulled back
through it; and the head is turned to the side to take a breath after
every other stroke.
Whereas many swimming races involve the
use of just one stroke for the entire distance, an individual medley
requires the swimmer to execute each of the four strokes, in the above
order, for one-fourth of the total race distance. (Medley relays,
which are performed by teams consisting of four swimmers each, require
a different sequence of the four strokes.) During an individual medley
a swimmer starts by using the butterfly, and then-after completing the
number of laps that constitute one-fourth of the race's total
distance-switches to the backstroke, after making a turn in the pool.
(Turning in races, or pushing off from the wall of the pool and
heading back in the other direction, requires a special technique
whose execution is a crucial part of competitive swimming.) The
swimmer then completes the required laps in the remaining two strokes.
To increase their speed in the water,
at some point every year, most professional swimmers shave their
entire bodies, as even small amounts of hair on one's arms or legs,
for example, can create frictional drag in the water, thereby slowing
a swimmer down. As little as one-tenth or one one-hundredth of a
second can decide a swimming race. As he told usaolympicteam.com,
Phelps shaves his body roughly twice a year; he recommends shaving the
day before a meet.
Competitive swimming is famous for the
rigorous practice it requires, and Phelps and Bowman are known for
their hard training regimens and their perfectionism. Michael E. Ruane
wrote that Phelps trains at the Meadowbrook Aquatic and Fitness Center
"seven days a week, almost
365 days a year." During practices Bowman walks the pool deck above
Phelps, blowing a whistle and shouting encouragement at his star pupil
as he courses through the water. On some days Bowman has Phelps swim
laps with sneakers on to weigh him down and make him work harder in
the water. "The physical part is all Bob," Phelps explained to Ruane,
regarding the close relationship between athlete and coach. "I just
swim. It's something that he's taught me to do. . . . If he says ‘Your
left hand is coming higher than your right,' then I try to fix it,
then just keep on swimming." (Bowman was named one of five finalists
for the United States Olympic Committee's 2003 national coach of the
year award; for his work with Phelps, U.S.A. Swimming named Bowman
coach of the year in both 2001 and 2003.) Kevin Clements, a fellow
swimmer for the NBAC team and an Olympic hopeful who has trained with
Phelps, told Frank Litsky for the New York Times (February 16,
2004) that Phelps "likes to train. He's never satisfied. Outside the
pool, he's a normal guy to hang out with. He likes to tease and fool
around with other [swimmers]. . . . But he's mature in ways, too. He
kind of makes training fun." Concurrently with his training and
competing in major swimming meets, Phelps attended Towson High School,
on the outskirts of Baltimore. (Towson High School did not have a swim
team.) Despite his grueling schedule, Phelps graduated from the school
in 2003.
In
1999 Phelps made the U.S. National B Team, whose members are
alternates; he has been a National A Team member every year since
then. (Phelps has been named a National Team All-Star every year since
2001.) In 2000 Phelps fulfilled a dream, qualifying for the U.S.
Olympic swimming team by placing second in the 200-meter butterfly
event at the U.S. Olympic Trials. He then competed in the 2000 Olympic
Games in Sydney, Australia, just four years after watching the likes
of Malchow and Dolan achieve Olympic swimming glory. At the Sydney
Games Phelps placed fifth in the 200-meter butterfly; his time set an
American age-group record. At the 2000 U.S. Spring Nationals Phelps
placed third in that same event. According to the Web site of the
Federation Internationale de Natation, Phelps, who had not yet reached
his full potential, was ranked in the top 50 swimmers worldwide in two
categories in 2000: the 200-meter butterfly (seventh) and 400-meter
individual medley (44th). By the following year Phelps was ranked
first worldwide in the 200-meter butterfly; fourth in both the 200-
and 400-meter individual medleys; 13th in the 100-meter butterfly; and
19th in the 200-meter backstroke. Phelps's rankings were boosted in
large part by his first truly dominant performance as a world-class
swimmer: at the 2001 Phillips 66 U.S. National Championships, also
known as the Spring Nationals, he set his first world record, winning
the 200-meter butterfly in 1 minute, 54.92 seconds. Only 15 years old,
Phelps had become the youngest male world-record holder in modern
history. He showed further signs of greatness that same year, winning
the 200-meter butterfly at the Pan Pacific Championships and two
events at the U.S. Summer Nationals. In addition, Phelps lowered his
own world record in the 200-meter butterfly (1.54.58) while swimming
to victory in that event at the 2001
World Championships. That win brought him his first international
medal.
That same year, Phelps, then 16 years old, became the youngest
male swimmer ever to turn professional, accepting the sponsorship
offered by various companies. He has since earned millions of dollars
in endorsement deals. In the Washington Post (June 1,
2004), Michael E. Ruane wrote, "Twenty-five years after the Olympic
movement allowed professional athletes to compete in the games, Phelps
has become the epitome of the modern American corporate Olympian."
(Under the direction of Peter Ueberroth, then head of the U.S. Olympic
Organizing Committee, the 1984 Olympic Games, in Los Angeles,
California, marked the world's first privately funded Olympics.) Many
corporations lend Olympic athletes financial support in the hope that
their association with a high-profile figure on the world's most
prominent athletic stage will help them sell more products. "Everybody
is now desperately trying to reach Generation Y," Phelps's agent,
Peter Carlisle, who works for the sports-marketing firm Octagon,
explained to Eric Fisher for the Washington Times (June 10,
2004), "and guys like
[Phelps] are Generation Y. Everybody is after that star who's young,
bright, hip and personable, and Michael arrives completely
pre-packaged for that." The money received from sponsors and
endorsements is often what enables athletes to support themselves
while they train.
Depending on the outcome of the
Olympics, Phelps could become the richest swimmer in history. The
swimwear company Speedo, for example, which has signed Phelps to an
endorsement deal through
2009 that is worth an estimated $2 to $9 million, will pay the swimmer
another $1 million if he
breaks Spitz's record of seven gold medals. That financial incentive
has in turn led to greater focus on Phelps and extensive media
coverage of his chances of breaking records at the Games. Phelps has
also signed lucrative endorsement deals with the credit-card company
Visa; Argent, a California-based mortgage company; Omega, the Swiss
watch firm; AT&T Wireless; and Power Bar, a food company.
At the 2002 Phillips 66 National Swimming
Championships, also known as the Summer Nationals, Phelps won four
events. His time in the 400-meter individual medley (4:11.09) set a
world record. In winning the 200-meter individual medley and 100-meter
butterfly, Phelps set American records. He also touched the wall first
in the 200-meter butterfly, recording the third-fastest time in
history. At the 2002 Pan Pacific Championships, Phelps won the
200-meter individual medley (1:59.70) and the 400-meter individual
medley (4:12.48), and swam to victory with his team-which set a new
world record (3:33.48)-in the four-man 400-meter medley relay. In
addition, he won a silver medal in the 200-meter butterfly (1:55.41).
In
2003 Phelps set the swimming world alight. At the 2003 U.S. Spring
National Championships, he captured three titles, winning the
200-meter freestyle, the 200-meter backstroke, and the 100-meter
butterfly, thus becoming the first man ever to win titles in three
different strokes at one national championship. In a performance that
will not be easily duplicated, Phelps then captured six medals,
including four gold, and set five world records at the 2003 World
Championships, held in Barcelona, Spain. He thereby became the first
swimmer in history to set five world records at one international
meet, and the first male swimmer to break two world records in
separate events on the same day. Referring to Phelps's ability to
remember his times in record-breaking performances, and to break world
records continually, Ruane called him a "keen swimming mathematician"
and a "human calculator." ("That's all the sport is," Phelps told
Ruane. "A bunch of numbers.") In Barcelona Phelps lowered his world
record in the 200-meter butterfly-his signature stroke-to 1.53.93. He
was also victorious in the 200- and 400-meter individual medleys,
swimming both events in world-record time, and Phelps's team of
American swimmers won gold in the 400-meter medley relay. For his
record-shattering performance, Phelps was named swimmer of the meet. A
few weeks later, at the 2003 Summer Nationals, held in College Park,
Maryland, Phelps turned in another stellar performance, becoming the
first man ever to win five national titles at a single meet. (Two
women, Tracy Caulkins, in 1978, and Natalie Coughlin, in 2002, have
accomplished the feat.) He finished first in the 100-, 200-, and
400-meter freestyle races and in the 200-meter backstroke; his times
in the latter two races set American records. Phelps's winning time in
the 200-meter individual medley, 1 minute 5.94 seconds, set a new
world record-and helped Phelps win a bet with his coach, Bob Bowman,
who as the loser of the bet had to shave his head, much to Phelps's
amusement. The occasion marked the fourth time in the first six months
of 2003 that Phelps had set a new world record in the 200-meter
individual medley. Phelps was given the Kiphuth Award for the best
performance at the Summer Nationals, for the third year in a row. (The
award is named in honor of the former longtime Yale University
swimming coach Bob Kiphuth.) In all, Phelps recorded more than 45
first-place finishes in 2003, while losing just two races the entire
year. In recognition of his accomplishments that year, he was named
the U.S.A. Swimming male athlete of the year and one of the top-100
stories of 2003 by ESPN, and he was listed among the Associated
Press's top 10 male athletes
of the year.
At the Conoco Phillips National
Championships in Orlando, Florida, in February 2004, Phelps won five national titles at a
single meet for the second time in his career, after becoming the
first man to do so six months earlier at the 2003 Summer Nationals.
Far outpacing his competition, he won one race with nine meters of
distance between him and the second-place finisher; in two other
events that he won, the distance was five meters. Despite those
convincing victories, after the meet Phelps and Bowman agreed that the
swimmer's form during the competition was not always correct, and that
much practice was needed. "Things could have gone better, but I'm
fairly pleased," Phelps told Frank Litsky. "I'm trying to improve my
turns a little bit. We started to work on my start, but Bob [Bowman]
said it was getting worse so we stopped." After the championships, in
regard to his star pupil, Bowman told Litsky, "Some things have to be
improved. Some practice habits have to be corrected. But I'm really
splitting hairs. He needs fine-tuning more than adjustments. Over all,
I'm very happy." Phelps was
named the meet's best performer and picked up his fourth Kiphuth
Award.
At the Santa Clara International Invitational in May 2004,
held at the George Haines International Swim Center in Santa Clara,
California, Phelps did something rare for him: he failed to win two
events in which he competed. In both the 100- and 200-meter backstroke
events, Phelps finished behind Aaron Peirsol, a world-record holder
and backstroke specialist. On the positive side, Phelps
defeated fellow American and world-record holder Ian Crocker in the
100-meter butterfly. (Crocker had beaten Phelps in that same event at
the 2003 World Championships; stung by the defeat, Phelps had
subsequently hung a picture of Crocker in his house, to fuel his
competitive drive.) "I love to race the best people in the world and
the fastest people in the world," Phelps told Ann Tatko for the
Contra Costa Times, a California newspaper (May 23, 2004),
referring to the stiff competition he faced at the Santa Clara
Invitational. "It definitely
makes things fun and keeps things interesting." Some observers of
American swimming deem Peirsol and Crocker (both students at the
University of Texas at Austin and, like Phelps, members of the U.S.
national team), along with the breast-stroke specialist Brendan
Hansen, to be as talented as Phelps. Still, while each of those
swimmers is a specialist who trains and competes in just one stroke,
Phelps is a rare talent who excels in a variety of strokes and events.
Phelps currently holds three world
records, in the 200-meter
butterfly and the 200- and 400-meter individual medleys; he holds six
American records, including the 200-meter butterfly, the 200- and
400-meter freestyles, and the 200- and 400-meter individual medleys.
(In early June 2004 the Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe, who has been
acknowledged as one of the best swimmers in the world since 1998,
broke Phelps's world record in the 200-meter freestyle.) At the end of
2003, Phelps was ranked first in the world in the three events in
which he holds the world record and second in the 100-meter butterfly,
200-meter freestyle, and 200-meter backstroke. Phelps was ranked third
in the world in the 400-meter
freestyle.
One of the most important meets of
Phelps's career, the 2004
U.S. Olympic Trials, took place from July 7 to 14 in Long Beach,
California. Phelps made a strong start at the trials, winning the
400-meter individual medley by breaking his own world record in that
event. Competing in a total of 17 races during the trials, Phelps
became the first American swimmer ever to qualify for six individual
events at the Olympics. He won four of those events and placed second
behind Aaron Peirsol and Ian Crocker in the 200-meter backstroke and
100-meter butterfly, respectively. (Both Peirsol and Crocker set world
records in beating Phelps.) Having chosen not to compete in the
200-meter backstroke, Phelps is expected to race in five individual
events (the 100- and 200-meter butterfly, the 200- and 400-meter
individual medleys, and the 200-freestyle) and up to three team relays
in Athens. At the awards ceremony concluding the trials, in a poignant
moment before 10,000 fans, Mark Spitz joined Phelps on the podium,
presented the young man with a medal, and raised Phelps's right arm
high in the air. Describing the scene, a reporter for the Associated
Press (July 14, 2004) wrote, "The message was clear: Phelps was
Spitz's heir apparent and had his support." As evidenced by the
competition given Phelps by his American teammates, the 2004 U.S.
men's swimming team is a very strong one. (According to Lynn Zinser in
the New York Times [July 14, 2004], American men
currently hold world records in eight events.) Some observers have
said that the current team is the best the U.S. has had since the 1976
Olympics, held in Montreal, Canada, where the U.S. men’s team won 27
swimming medals, among them 12 gold. (At the 2000 Olympics the U.S.
men and women swimmers won a total of 33
medals.)
The media attention on Phelps has been
intense. "Right now, Michael has to be selfish," Peter Carlisle told
Paul McMullen for the Baltimore Sun (June 11, 2004). "We've turned down about 10
endorsement offers. . . . We've had to turn down media. . . . there's
just not [enough] time. You try to do the best you can to accommodate
everyone, but every 15
minutes [of Phelps's time] is accounted for." After the Olympics
Phelps plans to join Club Wolverine, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, a
top-notch swim team affiliated with the University of Michigan's swim
program.
Phelps has made a number of television
appearances, both in commercials and on programs such as the Today
Show. In the
spring of 2004, he appeared in commercials that aired during the
Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, two of the three most important
annual events in horseracing and among the most prominent contests in
all of sports. Phelps has also appeared on the NBC network in
television promotions for the upcoming Olympic Games. In a Visa
television commercial that began airing in June 2004, through special
effects Phelps can be seen swimming from Athens to the Statue of
Liberty, in New York City's harbor, where he turns around for a return
lap as though he were in a swimming pool. According to Ruane, a
picture of Phelps appeared on the cover of a Visa brochure that was
mailed to 57 million Visa customers in early 2004. In March 2004
he was featured on the cover of ESPN magazine.
Phelps is a national spokesman for Boys
& Girls Clubs of America and an honorary board member of the Boys &
Girls Club of Harford County, Maryland, and Pathfinders for Autism.
In addition, Phelps has
served as a volunteer at the Child Life Center at Johns Hopkins
University. In addition to his other awards, in 2003 Phelps was
honored by the Amateur Athletic Union with the James E. Sullivan
Award. He became the first swimmer since Janet Evans, in 1989, and
just the 10th swimmer ever, to win the award. (Though the Sullivan
Award has traditionally been given to the best amateur athlete in the
country, in recent years the list of candidates has grown to include
young professional athletes and athletes of any age who are relatively
new to their sports' professional ranks.) In 2004 Phelps was nominated
for two ESPY Awards and was named the American-International
athlete of the year.
By all accounts an outgoing and likable
young man, Phelps lives with his mother in a Tudor townhouse in
Rodgers Forge, near Baltimore. In the house is a case full of the
trophies and medallions he has won. In addition to swimming Phelps
enjoys such sports as lacrosse, football, and soccer. He is a big fan
of rap music, the Austin Powers movies, starring Mike Myers,
and the work of the late comic actor Chris Farley. When he began
earning money from endorsements, Phelps bought a Cadillac Escalade for
himself and a silver Mercedes-Benz for his mother. Phelps's mother
grudgingly allowed her son to get a tattoo of the interwoven Olympic
rings, the well-known symbol of the Games, on his right hip; it is
usually covered by Phelps's swimsuit. Hardworking and rarely at rest,
Phelps told Joseph White for an Associated Press article (August 11,
2003), "I guess I'm kind of antsy when I
spend too much time out of the water."
Suggested Reading: Associated Press Aug. 11, 2003;
Los Angeles Times D p1 May 24, 2004, with photos; New York
Times D p4 Feb. 11, 2004, D p10 Feb. 16, 2004, with photos;
Washington Post E p1 Apr. 18, 2004, A p1 June 1, 2004, with photos
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