Michael Phelps’ goal for the next 10 days is very simple.
“I’m looking,” he said, “to do something different that the sport has never seen.”
That “something” is to break Mark Spitz’s record of seven gold medals the swimmer won at the 1972 Munich Games. Phelps came up short of the goal in Athens in 2004, when he won four golds and two bronzes. But with the experience of two Olympics under his swim cap, Phelps, a 23-year-old native of Rodgers Forge, isn’t just a favorite to win gold — he’s a favorite to rewrite the history books.
But to do so, he must place first in all his events — five individual and three relays.
“If they gave black belts for handling pressure, he’s about a sixth-degree black belt,” U.S. men’s swimming coach Eddie Reese said. “I’ve been around him when people come up and he’s at the genius level in dealing with people. He’s been in pressure situations so much, he’s been desensitized to a point.”
The pressure begins Saturday with his preliminary heat in the 400-meter individual medley. From then until Aug. 17, Phelps will race, barring catastrophic elimination in heats or injury, 17 times in nine days.
“They’re all going to be hard, but the one that will be hardest will be the first one, the 400 IM,” Phelps, the world-record holder in the 400-meter individual medley, said. “It’s the one I’m most excited to swim.”
But there’s another local swimmer who is just as ready for the spotlight as Phelps: Towson’s Katie Hoff.
Hoff, 19, is competing in her second Olympics after failing to qualify for the 400-meter individual medley final and finishing seventh in the 200-meter individual medley in Athens. Four years later, Hoff is favored to win both in Beijing.
“The second time around is so much easier because you have an idea of how things are,” she said. “Having experience gives me a huge advantage. I still get nervous, but there’s just more confidence there to back me up. I can’t control my competitors, but if I have great swims, then I should do pretty well.”
Hoff is looking to break Amy Van Dyken’s women’s record of four gold medals set in 1996. She has a little more room for error than Phelps, as she will swim in six events — five individual and a relay — and needs just five firsts to set the new gold standard.
“If I could overall do very well, then I’ll be happy,” Hoff said. “To me, that would be being seen as an overall very strong competitor and consistent throughout many events. That would be really cool.”
— The Associated Press contributed to this report.
