August 17, 2008	Sunday	Sha'aban 14, 1429

BEIJING, Aug 16: Michael Phelps became the “second man on the moon” on Saturday with his seventh gold medal of the Beijing Games, and the swimmer who says anything can happen was on a trajectory toward Mars.

The 23-year-old American phenomenon matched compatriot Mark Spitz’s record of seven golds at one Olympic Games with his sensational 100m butterfly victory, surpassing his own six-gold tally of Athens and netting a one million-dollar bonus from sponsor Speedo.

“If he wins seven golds and ties what I did, then it would be like I was the first man on the moon and he became the second,” Spitz, who won seven swimming titles at the 1972 Munich Games, has said of Phelps’s quest.

“If he wins more than seven, then he becomes the first man on Mars.”

Phelps was to go for gold No 8 on Sunday in the final race at the Water Cube, the 4x100m medley relay.

“It really shows that whatever you set your imagination to, anything can happen,” Phelps said. “If you dream as big as you can dream anything is possible. I saw some quotes saying that it was impossible to duplicate it, it won’t happen, but it just shows you that anything can happen.”

Four years ago, when Phelps was a 19-year-old heading to his second Olympics, Speedo made their first million-dollar offer and the hype machine went into overdrive.

Since emerging with six gold and two bronze, Phelps has steadily increased the scope of his dominance in the sport.

A game challenger to Aussie great Ian Thorpe in the 200m free in Athens, one of his bronze medal events, Phelps has re-made himself into the world record-holder.

His seven gold medals at the world championships in Melbourne last year offered a glimpse of what Phelps had in store for Beijing, where six of his victories so far have come with world records.

The seventh was his astonishing 100m butterfly victory over Milorad Cavic on Saturday, a last-gasp miracle in which Phelps’s decision to throw in one last shortened stroke gave him the win.

His one-hundredth of a second margin of victory was even smaller than his 0.05sec win over Ian Crocker in the same event in Athens.

“I’m even more shocked now than I was then,” Phelps said.

Coach and mentor Bob Bowman, who has guided Phelps since he was 11, said before the Games that the odds were “very much against” Phelps claiming seven gold medals, let alone eight.

Bowman’s goal was to “have him as fit and as prepared as he can be, then put him out there and see how he goes.”

He has gone spectacularly, his total of 16 swims so far — thanks to semi-finals in some events which Spitz didn’t have to cope with — managed with pinpoint precision.

Phelps credited Bowman with teaching him to dream big, and helping him realize those dreams.

“Bob has helped me to really dream about anything,” Phelps said. “I wanted to become an Olympic gold medallist, I wanted to become a world record holder and a special athlete.

“He was the one that really said ‘dream as big as you can,’ and it has finally happened.”

Phelps warned that the 4x100m medley relay wouldn’t be a pushover for the United States, despite their superiority on paper.

“Tomorrow is definitely not going to be an easy race. The Australians are going to put up a very good relay team, so it’s all about being a team and we’ll be trying to put four amazing swims together and see what happens.”

Phelps has already moved ahead of Spitz on one score here. He surpassed the US icon, along with Games greats Carl Lewis, Paavo Nurmi and Larysa Latynina, who were tied for the Olympic record of nine career gold medals.

But Bowman said it won’t be until after the Games that he and Phelps think about the historical context of his achievements.

“We haven’t talked about it at all,” Bowman said. “Just take it a race at a time.”—AFP