I just watched Michael Phelps win another gold medal -- his third in the Beijing Olympics (in the 200-meter free event).
Honestly, I had my doubts about Phelps before the Olympics began. He made it clear that he was shooting to win eight gold medals, and a lot of people believed he could do it. To me, though, it seemed like a recipe for disaster.
If you go into the Olympics with an expectation that you will everything, then you're facing a no-win scenario: Either (1) you DO win everything, in which case everyone says, "Well, of course..." or (2) you DON'T win everything, and everyone says, "How disappointing."
Michael Phelps has not been disappointing, though. Nor has he simply won his events. He is winning by large margins and setting world records, with no sign of stopping.
Granted, he should really send a thank-you note to Jason Lezak, who pulled out a miraculous win in the 4x100 freestyle relay. But Michael Phelps is a legitimate, dominating force in the 2008 Olympics.
If he wins eight gold medals -- which I expect he will -- he truly will go down in history.
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I'm also expecting Phelps to win 8 at this contest. When he got to the halfway mark of 4, I wrote a song about him. If you wanna hear it, visit this page:
http://journalrhythm.blogspot.com/2008/08/michael-phelps-is-halfway-there.html
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