Michael Phelps: Life in the fast lane

The deep gulps of air and fighting back of tears as Michael Phelps stood proudly upon the podium as US anthem the Star Spangled Banner rang around the Water Cube said it all.
It is a sound the 23-year-old American swimmer knows all too well. After winning the Men's 200 meters Butterfly final -- Phelps's fourth gold medal of the Beijing Olympic Games, each on a world record time -- another superlative can justifiably be added to the growing list of adjectives used to describe this amazing athlete: legend.
Phelps powered his way into Olympic history at Beijing 2008 to become the first person to ever win 10 Olympic gold medals. "I just kept thinking wow, I'm the greatest Olympian of all time, It's a pretty great title. It's pretty neat, I'm definitely honored."
"Listening to the anthem, with the medal around your neck is an amazing feeling," said Phelps, after his tenth record medal. "I am almost at a loss for words. Growing up I always wanted to be an Olympian."
He is the classic wholesome all-American boy who, for an added twist of tension, even had the audacity to win the 200 meters Butterfly despite a goggle malfunction which affected his vision.
"When my goggles filled up there was nothing I could do. All I could do at that point was swim. I tried to see something at the 150 wall. I tried to see the T on the bottom to judge my turn. I was more or less trying to count my strokes, hoping I was dead on. I'm just disappointed because I know I can go faster than that."

The deep gulps of air and fighting back of tears as Michael Phelps stood proudly upon the podium as US anthem the Star Spangled Banner rang around the Water Cube said it all.
It is a sound the 23-year-old American swimmer knows all too well. After winning the Men's 200 meters Butterfly final -- Phelps's fourth gold medal of the Beijing Olympic Games, each on a world record time -- another superlative can justifiably be added to the growing list of adjectives used to describe this amazing athlete: legend.
Phelps powered his way into Olympic history at Beijing 2008 to become the first person to ever win 10 Olympic gold medals. "I just kept thinking wow, I'm the greatest Olympian of all time, It's a pretty great title. It's pretty neat, I'm definitely honored."
"Listening to the anthem, with the medal around your neck is an amazing feeling," said Phelps, after his tenth record medal. "I am almost at a loss for words. Growing up I always wanted to be an Olympian."
He is the classic wholesome all-American boy who, for an added twist of tension, even had the audacity to win the 200 meters Butterfly despite a goggle malfunction which affected his vision.
"When my goggles filled up there was nothing I could do. All I could do at that point was swim. I tried to see something at the 150 wall. I tried to see the T on the bottom to judge my turn. I was more or less trying to count my strokes, hoping I was dead on. I'm just disappointed because I know I can go faster than that."

Faster was precisely what Phelps and his colleagues in the USA Men's 4 x 200 Freestyle team did to add an 11th gold to his list an hour after clinching the all-important tenth. They shattered another world record – Michael's 30th - by slashing an amazing 4.68 seconds off their own previous world record.
His 11 gold medals in total stand two clear of the previous best – the nine-gold-medal club consisting of four athletes: Finnish runner Paavo Nurmi, Ukrainian gymnast Larysa Latynina, US swimmer Mark Spitz and sprinter Carl Lewis.
"When you have an Olympic Gold medal, it stays with you forever. You're always an Olympic gold medalist. It's amazing and it definitely never gets old."
Indeed by the time the Beijing 2008 swimming competition concludes Phelps could also become the first person ever to win eight gold medals at a single Olympic Games, surpassing Mark Spitz's seven at Munich in 1972 and ratcheting up his overall tally to 14 gold medals.
Small wonder one of his friends sent him a cheeky text message after seeing Phelps step onto the podium for the tenth time: "Dude, how many times a day do I have to see your ugly face?"
At Athens 2004 Phelps took eight medals -- a feat only achieved by one other athlete, Russian gymnast Alexander Dityatin, in Moscow in 1980.
Perhaps the most staggering thing is that, at 23 years old, Phelps is feasibly young enough to add more Olympic medals to his collection should he decide to carry on until London 2012

So who is Michael Fred Phelps and what makes him the greatest Olympian in history?
Born in Baltimore in the US state of Maryland, Phelps – known as the Baltimore Bullet -- suffered Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder as a teenager and trained at the North Baltimore Aquatic Club under coach Bob Bowman, who was later an assistant coach to the US swimming team at Athens 2004.
He was a talented junior swimmer who became the youngest-ever US swimmer to compete in the Olympic Games when he represented his country at the age of 15 at the Sydney 2000 Games in the Men's 200 meters Butterfly. A few months later, at 15 years and nine months, he became the youngest man to set a swimming world record, again in the 200 meters Butterfly.
His first World Championship gold medal came in 2001, but the big breakthrough year was 2003, when Phelps won four gold medals and two silver at the World Championships in Barcelona.
At Athens 2004, Phelps extended that to six gold medals and two bronze (swimwear manufacturers Speedo offered Phelps one million dollars if he won all eight medals – an offer which has stayed on the table for Beijing 2008).
Indeed a succession of lucrative sponsorship deals meant Phelps could no longer train as an amateur, so when Bowman moved to coach at the University of Michigan in 2004, Phelps followed too and trained at a local swimming club in Ann Arbor called Club Wolverine.
Phelps has vowed not to work under any other coach than Bowman. "I don't think I would be where I am today with any other coach. He's always on top of things. We've been through a lot."
He maintained his grip as the world's No. 1 swimmer by winning four gold and two silver at the 2005 World Championships and then six gold medals at the 2007 World Championships in Melbourne, Australia. Then came this week's incredible record-breaking feats.
The bad news for Phelps's rivals is that he hasn't lost his thirst for more titles.
"This is something we've been preparing for over the past four years. The hard work is paying off and it's starting to show."
That is surely the understatement of Beijing 2008. Debate among sports columnists will rage about whether Phelps is the greatest Olympian of all time. Conjecture, of course ... but the record book is firmly on his side.

The Phelps Fact File
Full name: Michael Fred Phelps
Date of birth: June 30, 1985 (age 23)
Place of birth: Baltimore, Maryland, United States
Strokes: Butterfly, Individual Medley, Freestyle, Backstroke
Height: 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)
Weight: 195 pounds (88 kg)
Club: Wolverine, University of Michigan

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Men's 100m Backstroke: Peirsol (USA) grabs gold and world record

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(BEIJING, August 12) -- Aaron Peirsol of the United States came back from a lackluster semifinal swim to win the gold medal in the Men's 100m Backstroke final at the National Aquatics Center on Tuesday, August 12.
Peirsol, the defending champion and world record holder, qualified fifth fastest in 53.56 for the final but showed his class in swimming down Liam Tancock of Great Britain who turned in front at the 50m 0.49 seconds under the world record mark.
Peirsol surged ahead to win comfortably in 52.45 to beat the world record of 52.89 he set in July.
After qualifying second fastest for the final, Peirsol's USA teammate Matt Grevers finished with the silver medal in 53.11.
Hayden Stoeckel of Australia, who qualified fastest for the final in an Olympic record 52.97, deadheated with Russia's Arkady Vyatchanin for the bronze medal in 53.18.
Tancock faded badly in the final 50m to finish sixth.
Peirsol has confirmed his dominance of this event in emphatic fashion despite slow heat and semifinal swims. His form will be a shot in the arm for the US Men's 4 x 100m Medley Relay team with Phelps also in such irresistible form and they must go into the event as unbackable favorites

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Feature: Katerina Emmons -- Shooting Golden Girl

You could say that shooting is in the blood for Katerina Emmons, the first gold medallist of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
Not only is the winner of the Women's 10 meter Air Rifle the daughter of two-time world champion Petr Kurka, who doubles as her coach, she is also married to Athens shooting gold medallist, Matt Emmons.
In fact, the 24-year-old Czech Republic sharp-shooter met her husband-to-be at Athens four years ago, when, competing under her maiden name Katerina Kurkova, she won a bronze medal and Matt, representing USA, took the Men's 50m Rifle Prone gold (a title he will defend in Beijing on August 15).
Katerina, now ranked No. 4 in the world, described Matt as her "best teammate" after clinching her first Olympic gold medal with an Olympic Record 503.5 points, which included a perfect score of 400 points in the qualifying round. As a pair, they "work together as the best team in the world," she added.
They are considered to be shooting's 'golden couple,' although their Athens meeting was more than your average chance encounter between fellow competitors.
Instead, it came about under far stranger circumstances. After finishing her own events, Katerina worked as a shooting commentator for a Czech TV station.
One of her duties was to report on the Men's 50m Rifle Three Position, an event future hubby Matt was winning with ease going into the final round. Then, mysteriously and somewhat unusually, the stuff of nightmares happened.
Matt fired at the wrong target, lost his lead and missed out on the medals, finishing eighth.
Feeling sorry for him, as one shooter to another, Katerina sought Matt afterwards and found him seeking solace in a nearby beer garden. A conversation struck up and a relationship started -- albeit arranged around the world's major shooting tournaments -- their second meeting, for example, was in Bangkok.
They married in 2007 and have split their time traveling between the U.S. and the Czech Republic.
Shooting, though, wasn't Katerina's original sporting love. Growing up in Plzeň, the fourth biggest city in the Czech Republic, she competed as a swimmer until an illness ended a fledgling career.
To stave off boredom, her champion-shot father -- who, unlike many sports-mad dads, hadn't pushed his daughter toward his own chosen sport -- suggested she try rifle shooting, which Katerina soon discovered she could excel at.
What started as fun and occasional practice soon became serious sport. Her first major international medal came in 2002 when she won the World Championships at the tender age of 18.
The bronze medal she won in the Women's 10m Air Rifle at Athens followed two years later, and although she failed to do better than 27th in the Women's Three Position Rifle competition, she managed to progress in her main event, taking a silver medal in the 2006 World Championships and claiming European Championship gold in 2007.
Having won the Good Luck Beijing International Sports Shooting Federation (ISSF) World Cup earlier this year, when she matched Chinese champion and World No. 2 Du Li's 2003 World Record score of 504.9 points, Emmons came to Beijing with high hopes.

Not that she crumbled under the weight of expectation. "I dealt with the pressure," Katerina told reporters after her victory. "The only way is just not to think about it. Just pull the trigger and shoot."
She is not sure whether or not she will eventually change her nationality and compete for the USA. "I will leave the door open. If I can, I'd like to shoot for the Czech Republic for as long as possible."
Indeed, Katerina's own Beijing Olympic odyssey is not yet over -- she could become a double Games medallist as she is due to compete in the Women's 50m Rifle Three Position competition on August 14, although it isn't her strongest event.
Then, there is also her dual role supporting Matt, who also has a double Olympic quest. "Half of my job is done and I've done it well. Matt is now going to do his job," she said.
With one medal in the bag, a glut of shooting gold medals could be heading back to the Emmons household from Beijing.

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Liu Huan, Sarah Brightman to jointly present theme song

BEIJING, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Chinese singer Liu Huan and British singer Sarah Brightman will jointly present the theme song of the Beijing Olympic Games, the Games organizers revealed here on Wednesday. The two star singers will sing the theme song, the title and content of which remain a mystery for now, at the Games' grand opening ceremony scheduled for Friday evening, said Zhang Heping, an official in charge of the opening ceremony preparations with the Beijing Organizing Committee of the 29th Olympic Games (BOCOG), at a press conference.

Liu Huan, 45, is one of the most popular male pop singers in China, while Sarah Brightman, 48, is a world famous soprano who is also an actress, song writer and dancer.

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Yao Ming selected to hold Chinese flag at Olympic opening ceremony

BEIJING, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Chinese basketball player and NBA star Yao Ming has been picked to hold the national flag at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games on Friday night.
Cui Dalin, deputy head of the Chinese Olympic delegation, made the announcement at a press conference on Thursday afternoon.
Only those athletes with high sport caliber, good sport ethics and good public image could be chosen to carry the nation's flag, Cui said. "We have many such athletes, and we decide to pick Yao Ming after careful consideration."
Yao carried China's national flag at the opening ceremony of the Athens Games four years ago.

Further explaining why China chose Yao as the national flag bearer again, Cui said, "Yao can perfectly represent Chinese athletes, as he is an excellent athlete with good sport skills, sport ethnics and public image."
Born in 1980, Yao is a professional basketball player now serving the Houston Rockets of the U.S. National Basketball Association (NBA). He is currently the tallest player in the NBA, standing 2.26 meters.
Yao, a Shanghai native, was picked as No.1 draft pick by the NBA Houston Rockets in 2002. He has been selected to start for the Western Conference in the NBA All-Star Game in several seasons.
Yao is married to Ye Li, a former player for the China women's national basketball team.
Previously, 110 meters hurdlers Olympic champion Liu Xiang, "diving queen" Guo Jingjing and veteran volleyball player Zhao Ruirui were all tipped as hot favorites for carrying the national flag at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games.
But Cui told journalists that all these candidates are only the prediction of the media.
What's interesting, the national flag bearers for Chinese delegations since 1984 have been selected from the men's basketball team.
Wang Libin was China's flag bearer in the opening ceremony of 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, Song Tao for 1988 Seoul Olympics, Song Ligang for the 1992 Barcelona Games, Liu Yudong for 1996 Atlanta Olympics and 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.
Cui Dalin also briefed journalists that the 639 athletes in China's Olympic Delegation will compete in 28 sports, 38 disciplines and 262 events.
Cui said, veteran diver Guo Jingjing, shooter Tan Zongliang and basketball player Li Nan have consecutively attended the Olympic Games in Atlanta, Sydney and Athens.

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Olympic torch starts final-hours run at Beijing's archaeological site

The first torchbearer Feng Gong holds up the torch at the start of the last-day of Beijing Olympic Games torch relay in Zhoukoudian of Beijing, China, Aug. 8, 2008. The Olympic torch started its final-hours relay on Friday morning at Zhoukoudian, an UNESCO heritage site in southwestern Beijing suburb which has yielded many archaeological discoveries. (Xinhua Photo)Photo Gallery>>>

BEIJING, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- The Olympic torch started its final-hours relay on Friday morning at Zhoukoudian, an UNESCO heritage site in southwestern Beijing suburb which has yielded many archaeological discoveries.

Amid loud music and cheers, the first torchbearer Feng Gong, one of the best Chinese comedian, carried the torch and start running at around 7:08 a.m.
It was the final day of a three-day relay in Beijing, about 12 hours before the Beijing Games opens. A total of 140 torchbearers would run in turn on a 7.9-km route.
The relay will end at about 12:15 p.m. at the No.101 Middle School of Beijing, also home to the Olympic Youth Camp.

Zhoukoudian was most famous as the site where the archaeological treasure Peking Man, one of the first specimens of Homo erectus, was discovered.

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http://www.chinaview.cn/index.htm 2008-08-08 07:37:55