Word: swims
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Things started out well for the U.S. swim team, but medal hopes started to evaporate into the steamy air by the second day in the Greek sun. Phenom Michael Phelps won the country?s first gold medal in the 400m individual medley on Saturday, in world record time (4:08.26), finishing just ahead of Massachusetts native Eric Vendt, who won silver. In the women?s 400m IM, Californian Kaitlin Sandeno made up for her fourth place finish in Sydney by winning the day?s second silver, and Klete Keller claimed bronze for his 3:44.11 in the 400 freestyle...
Bowman could see that Phelps was born to swim. Blessed with a sinewy, whiplike body, a long torso and large hands and feet, plus a 6ft. 7in. arm span that extends 3 in. beyond his height (the usual ratio is 1 to 1), Phelps has as close to an ideal swimming body as you can get. Like other top swimmers, he doesn't so much power through the water as slide along it, propelled by a vigorous dolphin kick that surges from his head to his toes in a high-amplitude wave...
Capitalizing on that, Bowman tried Phelps in other strokes and found that the gangly teen was a quick learner with an uncanny feel for the water. Still, Phelps says, "he took every single stroke and changed it. From Day One, he wanted me to swim multiple events." That meant an early focus on the individual medley--the grueling test of all four strokes, which Phelps picked up with little argument...
...hundredths of a second, getting a smooth start can mean a world record; not wasting time at the wall can separate medal winners from also-rans. Phelps hasn't perfected his turns, says Bowman, because he is simply too good a swimmer. "He'd think, I'll just swim a little harder, and then say, 'That was a best time. How can you complain about that...
...swimming was taking shape, though, Phelps' family was breaking up. The same year he learned to swim, Debbie, a Baltimore County school administrator, and Frank, a Maryland state trooper, decided to divorce. The couple had built a home on a fiveacre spread in Harford County, Md., more than 60 miles from the Baltimore pool where their children were training. The round-trip drives, sometimes twice a day, were wearying. Debbie wanted to move the family to Baltimore; Frank wasn't so sure. It was one more issue in a deteriorating relationship. Phelps and his sisters remained with their mother...