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The Phelps story

AFP, Athens
In the end, the elusive seventh gold medal didn't seem to matter.
Michael Phelps needed only six gold medals to stamp his authority on the Athens Olympic swimming competition, eight medals overall to grab a share of Games history.
Only one other man, Soviet gymnast Aleksander Dityatin in the boycott year of 1980, has won eight medals at one Games.
The most for any swimmer was seven, by Matt Biondi and Mark Spitz.
Spitz, of course, made all seven of his gold at Munich in 1972. Two third-places in his first three races put paid to
any idea that Phelps would match - or surpass - that feat.
But his performance in Athens will remain one of Olympic swimming's great achievements.
"They're apples and oranges," Phelps' coach Bob Bowman said of the relative achievements of Phelps and Spitz.
"I don't think you can take anything away from seven gold medals. It's the standard, top of the line.
"But achieving eight medals, particularly in a format with semifinals and the sort of added workload that goes with that, and winning four individual events is very special."
Phelps, 19, swam 17 times in seven days. Spitz, who swam semifinals only in his 100m events, swam -- and won -13 races in Munich.
The difficulty of Phelps's task was underscored on the sixth day of com-
petition, when his evening session included a victory in the 200m individual medley in an Olympic record time, with the victory ceremony followed by the semi-finals in the 100m butterfly -in which he posted another Olympic record.
"I can't even make you understand how hard that is," Bowman said.
But US men's head coach Eddie Reese was impressed not just with Phelps' physical stamina, but with his mental focus.
"The level of competition now is fierce," Reese said.
"For Phelps to qualify for six individual events at our trials -- that can't be done and he did it.
"This (the Games) is much more emotionally draining than the trials."
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In addition to a slightly easier schedule, Spitz benefited from America's overwhelming dominance in the relays in his era.
Phelps had no guarantees in the relays, which became painfully obvious as the United States were relegated to a disappointing third in the 4x100m free on the second day of competition.
That meant that if Phelps wanted to match Spitz, he'd have to win his remaining six events, including a much anticipated showdown with world record-holder Ian Thorpe and defending champion Pieter van den Hoogenband in the 200m freestyle.
Phelps kept the 200m free on his Olympic programme just to take on the two middle-distance greats, even though his own personal best in the event was nearly two seconds outside Thorpe's world record.
His third-place finish was more than creditable, and it was more of a relief than anything else to come out from under the shadow of Spitz's seven.
On day four, Phelps and his 4x200m
relay teammates turned the tables on Australia, giving Phelps a second gold to go with the 400m medley title he won with a world record in the first event of the competition.
Gold medals duly followed in two more events in which Phelps was the world record-holder, the 200m butterfly and the 200IM.
But in the 100m fly, his final individual event, Phelps was up against world record-holder Ian Crocker, the man who beat him at both last year's World Champion-ships and the US trials.
Crocker, knowing how dangerous Phelps would be at the end, took the race out fast. Phelps, fifth at the halfway stage, relentlessly closed on his quarry, robbing Crocker with a lunging stroke at the finish.
"It was an unbelievable race," said Phelps, who in Athens made the unbelievable commonplace.
With the victory, Phelps joined Spitz as only the second man to win four individual swimming events at one Games.