Swimming Off Into the Sunset

I had wanted to write this a couple weeks ago leading up to the London Olympic Games, but workloads and a trip to South Haven, Michigan threw that off. I was able to watch parts of the opening ceremony and I've caught some of the different events over the past week-plus. Last night though I was able to catch the tape delay of the most significant swimming event we'll see for a while.

Photo from USA Today taken by Rob Schumacher.

I've been a fan of Phelps since he first burst onto the scene in 2004, but really enjoyed watching him in 2008. My brother did too, even taking to doing swimming moves on the carpet in our living room. We were blessed to get to watch a legend write itself before our very eyes. He owns some of the most iconic moments in Olympic history and while I'm sure he wanted more than just the 4 gold and 2 silver medals he came away with in London, but he said he's accomplished everything he set out to in his illustrious career. He's also inspired a number of kids, especially my brother.

 Obviously I'm not a world-class athlete... or even really on a local scale (otherwise I wouldn't be writing here). But from a young age my mom, who worked as a lifeguard in her youth, taught both me and my brother how to swim by having us enrolled in swimming lessons at multiple venues. I always considered myself a good swimmer, decent by competitive standards. But Michael Phelps is in another world all his own.

In January of 2011 my family got the opportunity of a lifetime. The Make-a-Wish Foundation flew us out to Baltimore for a few days of getting to see some of the city, walk around the inner harbor, visit the aquarium there, and ultimately make a trip to the Meadowbrook Aquatic Club to fulfill my brother's wish of getting to swim with Michael Phelps, an afternoon I'll never forget.

I'm pretty sure this picture says it all.

We floated and chatted for a while after watching Michael and a few other swimmers train (with some amazing equipment including a huge bucket of water attached to a swimmer for strength training or something along those lines... really something to see in person), we also did some laps in the pool. My brother climbed on Michael's back and he swam freestyle back and forth in something of an informal race against me. I just wanted to see how I measured up compared to the greatest swimmer of all time. To put it in perspective: he had largely taken a huge layoff from swimming after Beijing, was carrying a fairly heavy 11 year old on his back... and probably wasn't giving it his all. Taking all that into account, it was all I could do just to keep pace with them. It was incredible.

We had also planned for my brother to race Michael. They decided on backstroke and had to negotiate pretty hard to find a fair race. My brother initially wanted Michael to do 20 laps for his 1, and Michael played hardball to get him down to 7. It was pretty funny to see a guy who 2 and a half years before had gone 8 for 8 in gold medals telling an 11 year old that swimming 20 laps to his 1 wasn't going to be fair, but Logan seemed dead set on the 20 laps for a while before we finally convinced him to go with 7. It turned out to be the perfect number, as Logan beat him when Michael finished his 6th lap. My friend joked yesterday that that loss bugged Phelps through the beginning of the London games and might explain his fourth place finish in that opening race.

Over the course of those 3 or so hours, we bonded with a very down-to-earth man who would become the most decorated Olympian of all time. I think he was touched to spend time with my family that day, and somewhere he has one of our MDA Telethon T-shirts from 2010 signed by my brother. It was another unexpected moment that really captured the day in our minds.

 

If you were ever looking for an athlete for your kids to root for, Michael Phelps was the perfect one. Say what you will about the bong incident in 2009 or his time off from the pool after Beijing, but he absolutely earned those 22 medals in 3 different Games, and has been humble through it all, thankful for his teammates, and appreciative of many fans.

Thank you Michael, for all the memories, both in the pool and in our hearts. Enjoy your retirement. You've earned it.