Golden boy

Two really great Michael Phelps-related finds here. I've kind of stayed away from Phelps this week because there's nothing I can say that Rowdy Gaines hasn't already screamed into a microphone, but just know it takes a lot to get an entire sports department excited in the newsroom. We're a pretty reserved bunch, and there's the unspoken rule of "no cheering in the pressbox." Tonight, though, there was clapping.


First, the Sports Illustrated frame-by-frame underwater capture from his crazy victory in the 100 butterfly on Friday. Here's my favorite of the eight pictures in the series.



I've watched the replay a bunch of times and heard the explanation of HOW he came back to win, but I still don't BELIEVE it. My eyes just won't let me. I have no idea how he got to the wall that fast.

[SI.com - Phelps frame-by-frame]

And here's a PDF link to the New York Times article about Mark Spitz's seventh gold in the 1972 Olympics. (Sidenote: Interesting to see that doping was an issue for swimming even then.)

NY Times - Spitz swims to his seventh gold medal (PDF)

Overshadowed in all this? Supermom losing by .01 and Usain Bolt's silly-fast 100 meters. I could watch that race 50 more times and not get tired of seeing him pull away like everyone else was running in slow motion.