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| Joachim De Posada |
By Joachim De Posada
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The greatest Olympian of all time
There is no question that Michael Phelps is the most
dominant Olympian of all time, no one disputes that.
As was to be expected, all eyes were on Michael this
Olympics and everyone was comparing him to all the top performers in the
history of the Olympics.
Some might think that he started his career winning
every race he participated in. That was not the case and I was a witness to his
first Olympic loss and a lot of his wins.
Michael, believe it or not, competed in the 2,000
Olympics in Sydney, Australia. I was working with the Panamanian swimmer Eileen
Coparropa so I got to see most of the swimming competition.
Michael was only 15 and at the time, he was the
youngest American male swimmer to make it to the Olympics in 68 years. Even though he lost, in talking to one of the
American coaches, he said to me “you see that kid? He is a future star and soon
no one will be able to beat him”. I don’t think that coach could have imagined
that the skinny kid he was pointing out was going to win 22 medals, the most in
history and 18 gold ones, double that of the next highest record holders.
Let me put that into perspective. The next best total
for gold medals is nine, posted by four of the most heroic athletes in the
history of the Olympics: Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina, Finnish track star
Paavo Nurmi, U.S. swimmer Mark Spitz and U.S track star Carl Lewis.
His 22 medals are four more than Latynina’s 18 and
seven better than Soviet gymnast Nikolai Andrianov.
What really amazes most people is the fact that Phelps
was able to participate in four Olympics.
After his first Olympics where he got zero medals, he
went on to win his 22 medals. He had six gold in 2004, eight in 2008; I was in
both of those Olympics and he won four more now in 2012 that unfortunately had
to miss.
As an aside, I would have been in these Olympics, I
was negotiating with a team but realized that my agent had booked me in Mexico
on August 2nd and in Chile on the 7th and there was no
way I could have made it. Those contracts had been signed and there was no way
out, besides, I have never missed a booking in my entire life.
Even though Michael was the most dominant figure, his
victories were not easy at all, I mean, some were, but there were a few cliff
hangers and one that in all fairness, he didn’t win, even though the record
books say he did and that is what counts.
In fact, let me get it out of the way now. Michael
competed in the 100 meter butterfly in 2008 in Beijing. I was there and like a
lot of the fans, I thought he had lost against the Serbian swimmer Milorad
Cavic. When the results were posted in the electronic screen, it turned out
that Michael had set an Olympic record for the event with a time of 50.58
seconds, beating poor Cavic by one hundredth (0.01) of a second and winning the
gold medal. Lots of people were
surprised and some skeptical.
This was somewhat of a controversial race because just
before the race, Milorad caused some controversy when he said it would be a
good thing if Michael lost the race. He said, “It would be good for him if he
loses. It would be nice if historians talk about Michael Phelps winning seven
gold medals and losing the eighth to some guy and I would like to be that guy”.
What do you think this did to Phelps? When they told
him, he sort of got mad and said “when people say things like that, it fires me
up more than anything,
This win by Phelps against Cavic by such a narrow
margin, provoked a protest by the Serbian delegation and they officially filed
it.
A later analysis of the video by the FINA panel, which
according to procedures in place, they analyze frames shot 1/10,000th
of a second apart, confirmed Phelps victory.
There was however, one catch. The images were not released to the media
right away. This action by Omega caused
some consternation since Phelps had a sponsorship contract with Omega. The
Serbians were not happy at all but what can you do when you are going against
the greatest swimmer of all time that swims for the USA, the top swimming team
in the world.
Cavic, the losing swimmer, gave a lesson in
sportsmanship when he wrote in his blog “people, this is the greatest moment of
my life. If you ask me, it should be accepted and we should move on. I have
accepted defeat, and there is nothing wrong with losing to the greatest swimmer
there has ever been”. That was so nice of him and I imagine that the fact that
he is a Serbian American, swimming for Serbia, probably had something to do
with it.
This is what is interesting, though. In August 2009,
one year later, Omega officials admitted that Cavic for sure touched the wall
first but “Phelps did it more forcefully” thus recording the time first.
I find this fascinating and it will probably be
discussed forever. Who wins, the guy that touches first of the guy that touches
more forcefully and registers it first.
That little controversy aside, Mark Spitz is right
when he said that not only is Phelps the greatest swimmer of all time, he is
the greatest Olympian of all time and that makes him the greatest athlete of
all time. With this I agree one hundred percent.
How has he been able to compete in four Olympics
setting all these records?
In a few words, commitment, focus and willing to
sacrifice everything to achieve his goal.
Now, like all good things in life, it ends for him. He
is gone, retired and will, according to what he thinks right now, never ever
compete in a race again. He says that maybe someday he will jump in the water
but not to compete. It is over and boy, what a legacy will he leave.
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