Mo's Manic Monday - Wax
Posted: Monday, August 18, 2008 by Travis Cody in
Welcome to another Manic Monday with Morgen. Don't forget to cruise by MM HQ at It's A Blog Eat Blog World. Today's theme is Wax.
American swimmer Michael Phelps Waxed the competition last week, winning 8 gold medals to surpass Mark Spitz as the winningest athlete in a single Olympic games.
Here is what he did.
Won the 400-meter Individual Medley in world record time of 4:03.84.
Won the 4x100-meter Freestyle Relay with Garrett Weber-Gale, Cullen Jones, and Jason Lezak in world record time of 3:08.24. Lezak was the star of this relay, chasing down and just out-touching the French swimmer to keep Phelps on track for 8 gold medals.
Won the 200-meter Freestyle in world record time of 1:42.96.
Won the 200-meter Butterfly in world record time of 1:52.03.
Won the 4x200-meter Freestyle Relay with Ryan Lochte, Peter Vanderkaay, and Ricky Berens in world record time of 6:58.56.
Won the 200-meter Individual Medley in world record time of 1:54.23.
Won the 100-meter Butterfly by just touching out Milorad Cavic, 50.58 to 50.59 in an Olympic Record.
Won the 4x100-meter Individual Medley relay with Aaron Peirsol (backstroke), Brendan Hansen (breastroke), and Jason Lezak (freestyle anchor). Phelps swam the Butterfly third leg, swimming the fastest 100m Fly split ever and giving Lezak a lead which he held as the Americans won in another world record time of 3:29.34.
He had to swim 17 times, including qualifying swims, to get those 8 gold medals. He posted personal best times in every final, including 7 world records.
Let's put that in perspective. He swam freestyle and butterfly individual events, at multiple distances, against specialists in those events. He swam the fly leg on an IM relay. And he swam freestyle legs on two relays. The only breaks he got for qualifying swims were for the relays, when the rules allow different swimmers to swim in the qualifying heats. Otherwise he had to swim in every qualifying heat to make the finals, against swimmers who weren't in the pool every day like he was.
In two Olympic Games, 2004 and 2008, Phelps has 14 gold medals and 2 bronze medals.
He wasn't the only story in the first week of the 2008 Olympics. But when you set world records and dominate your events like he did, you're a pretty big deal.
Another pretty big deal was Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, who Waxed the field in the 100m sprint in track in a blistering world record time of 9.69. And he didn't even look like he was trying! He was celebrating for the final 10-15 meters of that race and no other sprinter was within 10 feet of him.
Congratulations Michael Phelps! Congratulations Usain Bolt!
And congratulations to all the athletes who have competed in the first week of these games.
A brilliant performance. And my own Team GB are dong better, this time, than they've ever done.
Hope it isn't that we feel at home in the pollution.