American superstar Michael Phelps has greatness on his mind as he embarks on swimming’s monumental challenge of eight gold medals at the world championships in Melbourne.
Compatriot Mark Spitz is considered the greatest swimmer of all time, with seven gold medals at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
Phelps attempted to emulate Spitz’s achievement at the Athens Games in 2004, but came up one short with six gold medals and two bronze.
The 21-year-old is again targeting eight golds at the world championships as a springboard to another assault on Spitz’s benchmark at the Beijing Olympics next year.
With Australian Ian Thorpe retired from the pool, Phelps is the world’s greatest contemporary swimmer with six Olympic gold medals, 16 world records and the promise of much more to come.
His versatility as a medley swimmer and butterflyer enables him to take on such a demanding workload aided by the unique physiological characteristic of his body producing less lactic acid than other swimmers.
Lactic-acid build-up is the scourge for all athletes, a substance that makes muscles ache during exercise, while Phelps is actually recovering during peak performance.
Next week, Phelps will defend his world crowns in the 200m freestyle and 200m medley, take on two-time world-champion teammate Ian Crocker in the 100m butterfly and compete in his world-record events, the 200m butterfly and 400m medley.
He will also swim in all three relays, where the Americans are favourites.
With Thorpe gone and Dutchman Pieter van den Hoogenband struggling for speed since a back operation in May 2005 and retiring after Beijing, the way is open for Phelps to seize the world 200m freestyle.
Phelps owns three world records (200m medley the other) among the 16 he has set in five years’ competition. Only Spitz (26) and East German backstroker Roland Matthes (18) hold more world records.
”This is probably one of the biggest meets of my career,” Phelps said ahead of the world championships. ”A good world championships sends you into the Olympic year feeling confident and you want to keep everything rolling. This sets you up for what happens next year. What happens in Melbourne will hopefully set up a good Olympics.”
Phelps said the key to coming out with so many gold medals at the big meets is not to get too much ahead of himself.
”The key for me is not getting hung up on one race,” he said. ”If I start off with a bad race, and I can put that race behind me and get ready for my next race, I’ll be able to manage everything.”
His coach, Bob Bowman, is convinced Phelps will produce a spectacular performance in Melbourne as a result of a new strength-training programme.
”It seems to be really paying dividends because he hasn’t really lost any endurance, but he’s gained strength and speed, which I think will help move him to the next level,” Bowman said. — Sapa-AFP