MICHAEL Phelps will become the most successful athlete at one Olympics by winning eight gold medals in Beijing, according to Mark Spitz – the man he is bidding to overtake.
The 23-year-old from Baltimore begins his record bid in the heats of the 400 metres individual medley in the Water Cube tomorrow after narrowly failing to match fellow American swimmer Spitz's haul in Athens in 2004.
Spitz claimed seven titles i
n seven world records in Munich in 1972 before Phelps won six gold and two bronze medals four years ago. But Spitz, who claimed nine Olympic golds in all, having won two in Mexico City in 1968, anticipates Phelps will top the podium in all eight events he has entered after improving in the last four years.
"He's definitely a better swimmer now," said Spitz. "I'd say there's maybe a three or four per cent chance that he's not going to win eight gold medals and it will only be because he might get sick or something like that, some unforeseen situation."
Prior to the Athens Games, Spitz made the same prediction. However, 36 years on from his own miraculous feat, he now believes Phelps has a psychological stranglehold over his rivals after a near four-year unbeaten run. "He's doing exactly the same thing that happened with me and when you keep winning it's really difficult for your competitors to think they have an edge on you," added the 58-year-old.
"If he starts off winning on the first day and the second, the third and the fourth ... his competitors are looking at him and thinking 'Man, he's doing everything right'. It's like a snowball, it's getting faster."
Phelps won seven titles at the 2007 World Championships – a team-mate's mistake denied him the opportunity of an eighth in the 4x100m medley relay – and now holds world records in four out of the five individual events he has entered.
"He's got more experience and in five individual events four years ago, he only held the world record in three of them," added Spitz. "Now he has the world record in the 200 free, he's 20 per cent stronger statistically. But we don't swim on paper, we have to swim in the pool, so we'll see what happens."
The full article contains 391 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
