Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2008

Phelps wins third event

BEIJING -- No dramatics, just dominance.

No surprises, either, for a swimmer who can now claim his place among the greatest Olympians ever.

A day earlier, Michael Phelps was forced to watch helplessly as a teammate did the near impossible to bail him out in his swim for a record eight gold medals. Reduced to the role of a cheerleader, he captured that gold on dry land.

Back in the water where he has no equal, he calmly swam into Olympic history this morning with yet another stunning performance that left his fellow 200-meter freestyle competitors searching for words to describe him. Teammate Peter Vanderkaay didn't even try, and he had a close up and personal look, at least for about the length of a pool.

Vanderkaay won the bronze, touching the finish line seemingly about the same time Phelps was explaining to NBC just how great he really is.

"I just tried to swim my own race," Vanderkaay said. "He's going to go out, but I can't let that affect my race strategy."

For those keeping score at home, the line on Phelps goes something like this, four days into an Olympics that threatens to make Mark Spitz little more than a footnote in the record books: Three races.

Three gold medals.

Three world records.

Nine Olympic golds overall, tying Spitz, Carl Lewis and two others for the most ever.

He is, as an NBC announcer quipped the other night, Tiger Woods in a Speedo. Except as great as Woods is, even he never won every event.

Phelps hasn't, either, though it's sure beginning to seem that way. Four years ago in Athens, all he could do was win a bronze in this event in the so-called "Race of the Century" against Ian Thorpe and Pieter van den Hoogenband. He erased that blemish on his record with a swim so overwhelmingly dominant that it was over before they finished one length of the pool.

Seven other world-class swimmers dove from the starting blocks with him, but the only chance they had was either grabbing him by his Speedo or hoping he might swallow a big gulp of chlorinated water.

Phelps obliterated his own world record by nearly a second, an eternity in swimming, and was nearly 2 seconds ahead of silver medalst Park Tae-hwan of South Korea.

"I just wanted to be out at the 50-meter point and that's where I was," Phelps said. "I was in open water and it was difficult for the other guys to see me."

Phelps will swim 17 times in these games, which gives faint hope to some of his competitors who might fashion their game plans around the possibility that Phelps will fade under so much work.

That's hardly likely, though, as Phelps himself noted that he got his hardest race out of the way first in the 400-meter IM.

"The events are getting shorter and shorter," he said.

The way Phelps is leaving other swimmers in his wake he shouldn't be challenged in the three individual races he has left, though he will again need help from his teammates in the two remaining relays.

He got just that the day before in the 400 freestyle relay when Jason Lezak furiously churned the last 50 meters to overcome what looked like an insurmountable lead by Frenchman Alain Bernard to nip him by a fingertip and give the Americans the gold.

It was jokingly suggested that Phelps might give part of the $1 million bonus he has been promised by a swimsuit manufacturer for winning eight golds to Lezak for the save, though Lezak said he was satisfied with winning gold.

For most Olympians, that is the dream -- winning gold, making a few bucks and being on front of a Wheaties box.

Phelps is winning so many and making so much he might one day have a cereal of his own.