It's just the beginning for Michael Phelps
By Jennifer Floyd Engel | Fort Worth Star-Telegram
BEIJING - Already feeling a little emotional after his world-record setting, gold medal-winning 400 individual medley performance, Michael Phelps looked up to see a familiar face nodding his approval.
President George W. Bush then waved his American flag for added emphasis. Phelps waved and nodded back, a gigantic smile eventually stretching across his face as he pumped his fist.
"That's a pretty special feeling," Phelps admitted. "It was definitely neat to have the president here and have him cheering us all on."
And what a show Phelps treated Dubya and everybody else to on Sunday morning at the Water Cube. His jaw-droppingly dominant swim was another reminder of why he is the poster child of this Olympics.
He is simply better than everybody else. He does with races what he wants. And what Phelps did to that 400 IM on Sunday was filthy.
He teased everybody into thinking this may be a race, hanging with Hungary's Laszlo Cseh and fellow American Ryan Lochte through the butterfly and backstroke legs.
"I wasn't comfortable after the first 200," Phelps admitted. "Seeing everybody so close together. That is not usually how it is after the first 200. That is usually how it is after the 300 mark. So I think it made my breaststroke a lot stronger."
He grabbed a slight lead after the turn in breast. He simply left them in freestyle, finishing at least a body length ahead for a world-record time of 4:03.84.
And Phelps did not simply beat what was his world record, he bludgeoned it about its head, going almost two seconds faster. What he did to his time from four years ago in Athens is just sick.
"I wanted to go 4:03. I didn't know if I would," Phelps said. "To be honest, I didn't really feel that great and going into the ready room I started getting these kind of like chills up my body."
If all goes according to plan, Phelps will swim 17 races in Beijing.
Two down. Fifteen to go.
And if Lochte really is the best chance to beat Phelps at this Olympics, then Mark Spitz had better enjoy his gold-medal record while he has a chance. Because he is not going to have it for long.
Phelps has demurred when asked specifically about besting Spitz's seven gold medals in a single games. He quite rightly notes he has never explicitly stated eight gold medals as his Beijing goal. He simply hints around said feat with talk of an arduous program and his goals.
One thing is for sure. Spitz was bang on in his assessment that Phelps had not fully tapered for trials. This is a faster and much more difficult to beat Phelps in Beijing.
Lochte had said a perfect race was needed to do so. He failed to deliver that, admittedly going out too fast and fading down the stretch to finish with a bronze.
And even if Lochte had swum his best race, chances of beating Phelps were slim on Sunday. He was just that good.
"He had a great race the whole way. I'm proud of him," Lochte said. "He did really good. Hopefully, that performance will help the USA team throughout the rest of the meet."
Hopefully, he helps Texas-ex Brendan Hansen. He advanced to swim in Monday's 100 meter breaststroke final (which will be on TV Sunday night back home) but has looked just so-so doing so.
"Like I told you guys, I am definitely not going to show what I got until (the finals)," Hansen said. "The entire semi one was watching my race, wondering why is he going so slow."
He says he's simply preparing for Monday's finals, where he hopes to beat his rival, Japan's Kosuke Kitajima, for gold. American Larsen Jensen took home a bronze in the 400 meter freestyle as did Katie Hoff in the 400 IM. The women's 4x100 meter freestyle relay finished silver.
The morning, however, belonged to Phelps.
His final 100 freestyle in the IM was a tease, a reminder of the greatness that awaits over the next week or so. Dub knows. That is why he nodded his approval.
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