Michael Phelps’s Olympic Sweep
Phelps in the 4x100 meter relay in Beijing
When
I was watching Michael Phelps win all those gold medals in Beijing, I
thought to myself, man, there’s the perfect athlete. You look at his
body, his performance, and you just assume he’s got a perfect diet,
probably takes a lot of pills from the GNC, all that. But you know
what? When we hung out, it was all burgers and french fries—and a bunch
of other stuff I’m not allowed to eat anymore. I was like, “Yo,
Michael, is this what you eat? All the time? How do you do what you
do?” And he replied: “I just go out and do it.” So now I think of him
as the nonperfect perfect athlete. And by that I mean, he shows you how
a great work ethic and pure determination can take you further than any
so-called perfect preparation routine. I’ve seen him work and I’ve seen
other guys work. And with Michael, he’ll take a hundred laps in the
pool, just as a warmup. In order for him to lose, he’s going to have to
beat himself. He just loves the competition.
