Friday, August 22, 2008

The thinker and the swimmer are making lists and thinking of London

WHAT more can Michael Phelps do? With eight gold medals from the Beijing Games, a career tally of 14 and a pot of endorsement gold in the offing what more is there for him to achieve?

Well, plenty, according to his coach Bob Bowman. When he left Beijing yesterday, he already had a sizeable list.

The rest of the world may have watched in awe as the 23-year-old American put together a seemingly flawless Olympic campaign, but Bowman examined the greatest Olympic performance in history with a more critical eye.

Phelps is still being mobbed every time he puts his head up in Beijing (he has acquired a full-time security detail), his agents have put him on a pedestal with Tiger Woods, but Bowman is already thinking about the next four years culminating in London 2012.

At the top of his list is getting another crack at the 200m butterfly. Phelps' goggles filled with water during that race in Beijing, affecting his vision, and he only narrowly bettered his own world record, clocking a new standard of 1:52.03.

Bowman says that time could have been 1:50, "and if he takes a shot at it on its own (without a heavy competition program around it) it could be 1:49".

The 100m butterfly is also a target. It was Phelps' last individual event in Beijing and his performance was affected by fatigue. He still clocked 50.58sec, but Bowman believes Phelps can be the first man under 50 seconds for the event (the current world record is 50.40sec).

Bowman will abide by his promise to Phelps that he can drop the 400m individual medley after Beijing, having set a towering world record of 4:03.84, although the coach thinks that could have been faster too.

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