Apparently, you can go too far...

I'll be honest, I wasn't really sure that you could go too far in praising Michael Phelps' accomplishments in the pool during this Olympic games. I've been saving up my own superlatives for after he finishes off his effort with what everyone now assumes with be his record 8th gold in the 4 x 100 medley relay. I can really only post once a day, and so I didn't want to be totally on one subject for a week.

I found out that you can, in fact, go too far last night. As you probably already know, Phelps matched Mark Spitz's 7 gold medals in the 1972 games with his 7th gold of 2008, with a ridiculously narrow victory in the 100 meter butterfly. Later in NBC's coverage, there was the obligatory interview with both Phelps and Spitz, which was, for the most part, must watch TV. However, in his effusive praise of Phelps, Spitz crossed a line, in my opinion. I can't find a transcript for the exact language, but when speaking of the US team's amazing victory in the 4 x 100 meter relay, he essentially said that it was all because of Phelps, that Jason Lezak had an incredible finish, but that the team and the result was inspired by Phelps as their leader.

Michael Phelps is, without question, the best swimmer in the world, and in fact probably the best all-around swimmer in history. He was a huge part of that victory, but there were 3 other guys swimming. And I'm not saying that the team didn't take at least some sort of inspiration from Phelps and his historic quest. However, to essentially credit Phelps for the fact that Jason Lezak swam the greatest relay swim in history and chased down a world record holder who had been spotted a half second lead? Let's get real here. That just goes way too far. Phelps swam a great leadoff leg, but it would have been irrelevant without Lezak, just like it would have been irrelevant if any one of the other 2 swimmers hadn't done their jobs. That's how a relay works.

Furthermore, if you've heard Lezak talk since the relay (I have), you know that, while he's happy for Phelps, he clearly doesn't feel like he was swimming for Phelps. In my entry after the relay, I detailed Lezak's association with past US relay failures, and comments I've heard from him make it clear that those, and not Phelps' shot at history, along with the fact that this was really his last chance, were what pushed him to the wall.

Spitz is a great champion, and he had a lot of great things to say and much great insight throughout the interview. And I'm sure his intent was not to discredit Lezak, but that was absolutely the implication of what he said. I understand the desire to heap praise on Phelps, I'll be doing myself at some point later tonight or tomorrow. However, the man has done great things on his own in the pool, and there's just no reason to start embellishing his resume by assigning him responsibility for the performances of other athletes. Phelps contributed to that relay victory with a great leadoff leg. He did not make it happen all by himself, and implying it was all him would be just as wrong as acting like it was all about Lezak.