Warning — don’t read this if you care about the 200 men’s freestyle, the much-hyped “showdown” between Michael Phelps (the American phenom) and Ian Thorpe (the Australian star), and want to see it live in primetime tonight. Because I’m about to talk about the result.
…
…
…
Ok.
Minor Olympic rant: Michael Phelps and how he’s been treated by the media. The kid is an amazing swimmer, perhaps the most versatile in the world at the moment. The media has gotten itself into a frenzy over the fact that he entered eight events, and thus could theoretically break Mark Spitz’s record of 7 gold medals in one Olympic games. Today he took bronze in the 200 freestyle, finishing third to Thorpe and Pieter van den Hoogenband of the Netherlands. Now, after this and the U.S. team taking bronze in the 4×100 freestyle last night, the best Phelps can do is leave Athens with six golds, and the media is starting to say things like “despite his talent, fewer than 7 golds could look like a failure.”
Um…hello? Michael Phelps has entered three events so far, and left with three medals. One gold, two bronze. Three Olympic medals already, and he’ll almost certainly win more. Holy crap.
It sort of makes me want to smack someone. He’s 19 years old, seems like an all-around good guy. He’s got a long swimming career ahead of him, and in addition to other world records he already held, he set a new one in the 400 IM on Saturday when he won by a body length. A world record. By a body length. Pretty damn impressive. He may not win all golds, but he’s going to go home with quite a haul nonetheless.
And so it really irks me that the media is now suggesting he may be a “failure” simply because he didn’t accomplish what they over-hyped in the first place.
