Michael Phelps has achieved another unprecedented feat: the first swimmer honored as Sports Illustrated's sportsman of the year after his eight-gold medal swim in Beijing. That success gave him one more gold than Mark Spitz back in 1972 at a single Games and rocketed Superfish past all other Olympians in history on gold medal count, at 14.
"I think to have an honour like that, following so many great athletes who've received that award ... it's hard to put into words what it would really mean," Phelps said two weeks ago, during a brief interview before the Golden Goggles swimming awards in New York. "It would be a huge honour, something I would cherish, to follow in the footsteps of someone like Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, some of the greatest athletes in the world. To be in that same sentence would be pretty special."
Olympians in other sports have earned the award before in its 54-year history, but never a swimmer. In 1972, the year Spitz won his medals, UCLA basketball coach John Wooden and tennis great Billie Jean King were honored by the magazine.
"Honestly, I feel like the same person I've been my whole life," Phelps told The Associated Press at a recent photo session where he posed for the Sports Illustrated cover. "I'm doing what I love. I was able to accomplish what I wanted to accomplish this year. It's been a dream come true of a year, and I definitely couldn't ask to change anything."
USA Swimming Executive Director Chuck Wielgus said of Phelps' accomplishment: “What Michael accomplished in Beijing was absolutely awesome, and equally impressive is the impact he has had on raising the profile of our sport in this country and across the world. Michael is a remarkably talented, committed and exciting athlete and it is wonderful to see him recognized with an award as prestigious as the SI Sportsman of the Year award. He is certainly deserving of such recognition, and USA Swimming and the USA Swimming Foundation congratulate him on this historic achievement. USA Swimming has seen unprecedented growth at many of our 2,700 swim clubs across the country since the 2008 Olympic Games and we know that we owe this post-Olympic membership boost in large part to the awe-inspiring performances by Michael and his Olympic teammates this past summer.”
The 23-year-old Phelps follows a more traditional winner, NFL quarterback Brett Favre. Sports Illustrated Group editor Terry McDonell called the selection of Phelps "the easiest choice I have made."
"It is so obvious that he changed not only swimming, but the entire Olympic landscape," McDonell told AP. The swimmer said: "The football players and basketball players and baseball players have it a little bit different. Everybody sees their faces more often," Phelps said. "Just being able to have the attention of the American public is something I've always wanted for our sport. I've been able — not only myself but my teammates — have been able to work together to allow that to happen."
Of late, Phelps and coach Bob Bowman became business partners, buying Meadowbrook Aquatic Center in Mount Washington. The swimmer also donated his $1m bonus from Speedo to a foundation to bring children into swimming.
"It's just another way for him to impact other people and particularly the sport of swimming, which is one of his goals," Bowman told the Baltimore Sun. "I hope we can put out some products that will be very attractive to people and that we'll teach a lot of people how to swim or swim better."
Bowman has been hugely instrumental in Phelps's success. If Phelps is on the cover of SI, then the coach is worth a whole edition just to himself. And it would be a great read too.
Meantime, Phelps is enjoying being back in Baltimore, telling the paper: "Back close to my family, close to my home turf. I know everything there. I've been going out to eat almost every night, getting back to the Baltimore scene of restaurants and food. I've been having a lot of crab cakes and crab dip. That's been something I've missed the last four years."
Phelps told the 60 Minutes TV show recently that he's weighing it at 205lbs - a record high for the swimmer. He will soon shed the extra girth: next month, sooner than planned, he will return to the pool to train for Rome 2009 en route to London 2012. "I know that once I start really getting back into it that walking up my flights of steps is not going to be fun or easy," Phelps told the B Sun. "It's something I have to go through and deal with."
"Before long," said Bowman, "he'll be back in his mode where he just swims and then sleeps."
