The Phelps Watch

By Chad Klassen
Love of Sports Correspondent

In the Chinese culture, the No. 8 is similar to the word “prosper” and is widely known to bring good fortune.

We all know the Olympics welcomed the world on August 8, 2008 (8/8/08), but when the Games kicked off to a dazzling display of fireworks, who truly knew the lucky omen would translate into the greatest performance all-time and result in eight gold medals for swimming phenom Michael Phelps?

The Baltimore Bullet picked up his eighth piece of golden hardware Saturday night, as the American 4x100 medley relay team touched the wall in 3:29.34 to win in record-breaking fashion and become part of Olympic history.

During the first two legs, with Aaron Peirsol and Brendan Hansen swimming the backstroke and breaststroke, respectively, the U.S. fell behind Japan and Australia, putting Phelps in a position to show his greatness when he took the pool.

By the time he emerged from the water, the race was basically back to even before the pool shark smelt blood and took control in the butterfly portion. Jason Lezak took a healthy advantage (half body length lead) into the last 100 meters and swam a solid freestyle leg to bring home gold.

Unlike in Athens, when the U.S. took bronze in the 4x100 freestyle relay, they swept the relay portion of the swimming.

Everyone was readily aware of the historical significance that was riding on the line, and each of them took it upon themselves to swim some of the best races of their lives, not only to ensure they came home with gold medals around their necks, but also to do their part in Phelps’ quest for eight.

The Americans did their job, and their superstar teammate did the rest himself, winning all five of his individual races to surpass Mark Spitz and put himself alone as the greatest swimmer ever to grace the water.

With the lucky No. 8 in mind, was it lucky fortune or pure dominance that guided Phelps to the historic mark? Well, you can point to karma all you want, but it was his brilliant display of swimming that had the Baltimore Bullet listening to the American anthem eight times inside the Water Cube.

He was remarkably dominant in six of the eight races, putting distance between him and his competitors while smashing seven world records, many of them his own.

The amazing part of this whole swim into the record books was that he swam 17 races in nine days, amounting to almost two races a day. He didn’t have much time between the medal ceremonies and the races in which he was swimming, but Phelps was always able to refocus and forget about the previous gold medal before diving into the pool again to earn yet another one.

That said, it didn’t all come easily for him. Phelps had the flare for the dramatic through parts of these Beijing Games and was arguably a little fortunate in a couple of them as well.

After it looked like the French would come through on their promise to “smash” the U.S., Lezak put on a surge in the last 50 meters of the 4x100 freestyle relay to keep Phelps’ bid alive early in the swimming competition.

Then, only two nights ago, he stormed back in the 100-meter butterfly to beat Serbia’s Milorad Cavic by 0.01 to win his record-tying seventh gold. Even the greatest of athletes need some breaks to go their way, and the pool shark was the beneficiary of Cavic’s halfhearted glide to the wall that was ultimately the difference.

But no matter how he won those races, he did the unbelievable in Beijing, and nobody can ever take that remarkable achievement away from him.

We’ll be looking back at his mastery during these Games and watch in awe years later when these races are replayed. The feats he accomplished will be used as a measuring stick for all the world class swimmers who’ll come after him.

If there was any doubt before the Beijing Games, we can now say with certainty that Phelps has etched his name in Olympic lore. With the eight gold medals in 2008 and 14 victories overall, he’s the greatest Olympian ever and won’t soon be forgotten for his memorable spectacle inside the Water Cube.

Over the years, many people reiterated the impossibility of repeating Spitz’s record seven golds in Munich back in 1972, but I’m going make the same bold prediction in saying Phelps’ unprecedented eight wins will never be challenged in the pool.