Michael Phelps is a
phenomenon whose records may never fall
My view on Michael Phelps' career is double-edged. You could
build up his feat in becoming the most decorated Olympian of all time, although
you could also play it down. He has been able to pursue multiple golds at his
last three Olympic Games, and one might argue that this diminishes his place
among the greats.
But how do you rank greatness? With 15 gold medals he
already has to be listed as one of the finest Olympic athletes ever, and yet I
still believe his feat would have been more impressive if he achieved it over
six or seven Games.
No one should doubt the power of Phelps' achievement to
inspire. My son, Zak, was with me in Beijing
on the night when Phelps won his eighth gold of those Olympics in 'The Cube'.
Zak was just 10 at the time and did not fully appreciate the significance of
what he was witnessing. But a little while ago he said to me: "Dad, I want
to be a professional sportsman." That is the impact the Games, and the
finest accomplishments, can have. They are about dreams.
That evening in Beijing,
Phelps broke Mark Spitz's record of seven golds at the Munich Olympics in 1972,
a standard that I never thought would be beaten in my lifetime. To be honest, I
was a little disappointed that he did break it, because Mark has become a good
friend of mine. I asked Mark whether he wanted to watch Phelps win eight and he
replied: "No. I don't want to see my record taken down." But I am
still pleased to say that I was there when Phelps made history, for I do not
believe those eight golds at a single Games will ever be bettered.
There are 300 medals awarded at the Olympics, and there are
so many champions that we are constantly looking for the truly outstanding
performance. In 2008 Phelps, almost unbelievably due to the tight margins he
was working against, delivered it. He took that step up to greatness, because
he was taking on specialists in each of those individual races and beating
them.
Even though his disciplines are very close to each other, he
has still been racing against people who have trained for most of their young
lives for just one event. And Phelps' ability to leave them trailing in his
wake is what makes him special. Take the other extreme, and look at the
decathlon.
I do not want this to be seen as a rift between Daley
Thompson and I, because one does not exist, but some people claim that
decathletes are the ultimate athletes. I hardly think, however, that a child
wakes up in the morning, finds a sport and thinks, 'I want to be a decathlete.'
You want to be a sprinter, a discus thrower, but ultimately you do not quite
make it. Instead, you have the capacity to take on lots of different events.
It is extremely impressive to be able to do that, but your
rivals are not specialists - they are generalists, just like you.
You are never going to be competing against Usain Bolt in
the 100 metres, or against Liu Xiang in the high hurdles. In one or two of the
disciplines you might be exceptional, and capable of rising to the top of the
Olympic field, but otherwise you are defined by the breadth rather than the
depth of your talent. You are pitched against people doing precisely the same.
Phelps is different. He has taken on the best in their
chosen fields and won. He possesses a perfectionist streak, just like Mark
Spitz did, and just like I did in winning five Olympic golds in rowing. Whereas
Matthew Pinsent would always shout, "Don't tell me when the boat's going
badly, tell me when it's going well," I would tend to say, "This is
not good enough. We have to do better." I saw that in Mark's make-up but I
loved him immediately as a character: he was an inspiration to me, and his
seven swimming golds in Munich
encouraged me to pursue my Olympic dream. He tried to make a comeback in Barcelona
in 1992 and discovered, rather like Phelps has found in London
this week, that the old magic was not quite there.
But we are all very competitive people. It is immensely
difficult for somebody as driven as Phelps to call time on his search for the
thrill of an Olympic medal. People say to me, "You went to went to Sydney
to win a fifth gold." I can assure them that was not true: I went there to
win an Olympic gold for its own sake. And in the men's four, I was trying to
win a race that I had never won before at that level. I was not going out
trying to make history.
Being so passionate, you want to keep winning golds, to keep
winning medals, to keep doing the best you can. Some disagree, insisting:
"You should have retired. You are never going to do any better." But
who are we to give the right to tell great champions when they should stop?
Only Phelps, quite rightly, has taken the decision on his
retirement. For the pool has been his life.
