He does it: Michael Phelps nabs eighth gold

It’s in this nearly 80-year-old building, home to the North Baltimore Aquatic Club, where area children chase Olympic dreams, constantly reminded of all the greats, their pictures and their bronze, silver and gold accomplishments displayed predominantly on a wall.

But perhaps their biggest motivation stems from the same sign Michael Phelps stared at as he churned through tens of thousands of laps en route to winning more gold medals than any athlete in Olympic history: “If we are to be champions, we must rehearse daily championships within ourselves.”

It’s fueled Phelps’ run to stardom that culminated with the Rodgers Forge resident winning eight gold medals — all in world-record times this past week in Beijing — breaking the record seven won by Mark Spitz in 1972.

“Let him have that monkey on his back for the next 25, 30, 35 years,” Spitz said at last month’s U.S. Olympic Trials. “It’s not an easy thing. It’s fun to answer to at first, but pretty soon that gets to be boring.”

Phelps’ response?

“I just swim,” Phelps, 23, said this week. “I don’t think about it.”

“He lets his swimming do the talking for him”

Phelps first jumped into the pool at Meadowbrook as a 4-year-old — and overcame the fear of putting his head in water.

The rail-thin child followed in the wake of his older sisters Hillary and Whitney, joining them on the NBAC team when he was 7.

It didn’t take long for Phelps to demonstrate his lofty potential, as he used the sport to help deal with the divorce of his parents, Fred and Debbie, which was finalized in 1994. Debbie has remained a very prevalent part in Phelps’ life, as she’s a target for television cameras during her son’s races in Beijing. Meantime, Fred Phelps did not attend the Olympics, allowing the spotlight to shine on his son.

At age 10, Phelps set a national record for his age group, and began working with Coach Bob Bowman. At 14, Phelps swam about 10 miles a day — even on the holidays — which gave him the ability to qualify for Olympics in 2000, where he placed fifth in the 200-meter butterfly in Sydney, Australia. 

But the world was about to take notice.

Five months later at 15 years, 9 months, Phelps broke the world record in the event he failed to medal. Three years later, Phelps tied an Olympic record by winning eight medals — six gold and two bronze — at the 2004 Games in Athens. In a span of a week, Phelps won more medals than most Olympians win in a lifetime.

“By the age of 19 I had accomplished all my dreams,” Phelps said. “I guess it’s time to make more dreams and shoot for those and that’s what I’m doing right now.”

So Phelps increased his training, leaving Baltimore for the University of Michigan, so he could train with Bowman, who was hired as head coach of the men’s swimming team. Phelps was ineligible to compete in college because of his sponsorship deals.

Phelps was alone, away from his friends and family. All he had was swimming — a daily battle where he pushed himself to the brink to knock a few tenths of a second off his times.

He became consumed by winning.

“We used to go to a breakfast place down the street and he had to eat more than everyone else,” NBAC coach Scott Armstrong, who used to train with Phelps, said. “If we were playing Risk, he had to win. He’s not nasty about it, it’s just what drives him to give everything his best.”

And that’s the quintessential Phelps: He expects his swimming dominance to transcend beyond the pool and into all facets of his life. He rarely seeks the spotlight or publicity, as he knows attention finds him.

“Michael was here in May for an event we had and he had to do two days worth of training,” John Cadigan, NBAC’s masters coach who had 17 swimmers qualify for this year’s Olympic trials, said. “He walked through the lobby on a Saturday morning when we were crowded with swim lessons and parents and nobody noticed him. He went in the locker room, changed, came out in his Speedo and no one noticed him.

“He got in the water and started swimming up and down — it clicked. Everyone started saying ‘Is that Michael Phelps?’ And that’s always been Michael’s thing. He’s not a real braggadocio guy, he doesn’t talk smack. He lets his swimming do the talking for him.”

THE NBAC EFFECT

The far wall of the indoor pool houses the pictures of the NABC’s 10 Olympians, with Phelps and Katie Hoff the most recent additions.

“The biggest thing for [our swimmers] is the example that is being set,” Armstrong said. “[Phelps] didn’t create that example. Just look on the wall. 1984 is when NBAC had its first Olympic gold medalist. It’s an evolution and Michael learned those things from this place, from the culture of excellence. It exists here and is nurtured here and a person like Michael comes up through that, and it’s a big part of where that comes from.”

Phelps, however, said he is far from perfect.

He admitted he was “lazy” in a national television interview during the Beijing Games, and he was charged with driving under the influence in 2004 following the Athens Games. Aside from being a volunteer assistant coach, Phelps doesn’t have a full-time job, yet he’s to swimming what LeBron James is to basketball.

“Everytime he comes back I talk to him a little,” Elizabeth Pelton, a 14-year-old world junior champion at NBAC, said. “It’s cool. When I was eight I saw him on TV and was like ‘Oh my Gosh’ and now he’s in the lane next to me.”

Pelton, who moved from New York to Maryland to swim for NBAC with her 17-year-old brother Greg, relishes occasionally practicing in the same lane as Hoff. But the chance to swim next to some of sport’s biggest stars isn’t cheap.

NBAC has about 200 swimmers who pay between $1,200 and $2,200 a year — not including the hundreds, and in some cases, thousands of dollars to travel to and compete in prestigious meets across the country — for the chance to be trained by coaches whose resumes are filled with Olympians.

Austin Surhoff, the 17-year-old son of former Oriole B.J. Surhoff and his wife, former NBAC Olympian Polly Winde, won a silver at the World Junior Championships last year.

But he said Phelps is too good, even for a role model.

“He’s similar being from Baltimore, but he’s not a direct inspiration because he’s such a freak, I don’t know if anyone can do what he did,” Surhoff, who participated in the U.S. Olympic Trials this July, said. “In a strange way he inspires me as a role model because when I see him I am reminded there is always someone better out there than me. Even if I can’t get to his level, I need to work my hardest to maximize my own potential.”

WATER’S BLUE, MONEY’S GREEN

Phelps’ magic number is seven — as in the number of gold medals in Beijing that guarantee him a $1 million bonus from Speedo, one of his sponsors.

Phelps earns about $5 million annually, with the vast majority from sponsorships. He won seven gold medals and set five world records at the World Championships last year, but only earned about $200,000 in prize money.

His sponsors include Visa, Omega watches, AT&T, Kellogg’s, Hilton, PowerBar, and Matsunichi, an electronics company that alone pays him one million annually.

But Phelps pays them back in exposure. 

Consider: Phelps’ deal with Nike mandates he wears a Nike sweatsuit at an award ceremony, which meant just by winning just five gold medals, Phelps displayed the Nike’s famous “Swoosh” on his chest for about 3 1/2 minutes in front of a worldwide audience. That translates to about $5.3 million in equivalent advertising spending, according to Joyce Julius & Associates, a Michigan firm that charts the endorsement value. Speedo is estimated to have received about $3.6 million in free advertising, and combined with the rest of his sponsors, he is worth about $9 million on in-broadcast exposure worldwide.

And with each record-breaking performance, Phelps’ value increases, as the 6-foot-4, 195-pounder could be equivalent to a $20 million Olympic billboard by the time he comes home.

“He is helping to promote to the Gen Y market,” Stu Isaac, senior VP-team sales and marketing for Speedo, told reporters. “He is a very recognizable athlete.”

Phelps still has a long way for his salary to rival major athletes in other sports.

The Los Angeles Lakers’ Kobe Bryant makes nearly $19.5 million a year; Dallas Cowboys receiver Terrell Owens makes around $9 million; New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez makes about $28 million — and all of those are before endorsements. Tiger Woods, prior to his injury, made about $111 million a year — $100 million from sponsorships.

But to Phelps, it’s not just about the money or becoming one of the world’s most recognizable faces.

”One my biggest goals is to change the sport of swimming, and sort of how the American public views it, so I think all that is part of it,” he said. ”But if you would’ve asked me even five years ago if I’d be sitting in the shoes I’m in now, I would have said, ‘Not a chance.’ It’s a dream come true.”

— The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[email protected]