Greatness and Michael Phelps

"If class truly is permanent and form really is but temporary, what can we say of greatness? That it's another word for class? That there's a word even more time-and-tide-proof than permanent?", writes Rob Steen while describing South Africa's top performers in the 1st Test. In today's world of sports, We get to see a lot of athletes excel in their respective fields. But, most of these sportsmen usually don't sustain their efforts over the course of time. Their careers start off well, but with time, their performances often dwindle, and slowly, they descend into sporting obscurity. Not with Michael Phelps.

Yesterday, Phelps ended his glittering career with one final gold medal - out of 18 overall - in the 4x100m Medley Relay. 18 gold medals! To put this achievement in perspective, check the tweet below:

This is the first day of the post- @michaelphelps era. He won more gold medals (18) than 101 NOCs in OG history, including Jamaica (14)
— Infostrada Sports (@Infostrada2012) August 5, 2012

Phelps started out as 15-year-old in Sydney back in 2004; he won no medals there. Now, he is 27; with a career Olympic medal haul of 22 medals. To have success in one Olympic games is nothing new. But rarely have they maintained the intensity and drive to succeed in the following games that they participate. Phelps has. He has stood the test of time that separates the greats from the good. After winning 8 Gold medals in Beijing, it must have been really hard to motivate himself to better that (you can't; there was only matching that record), yet Phelps has come out strongly this summer winning 4 Golds and 2 Silvers. Remarkable feat. Only one other sportsperson comes to mind who has achieved this level of greatness: Sachin Tendulkar. 

"IF GREATNESS CAN BE DEFINED as the ability to rise above the pack, to convert the unusual into the routine and the unlikely into the matter-of-fact, to do the necessary when it matters most, it can be more instructively rationalised as the capacity to bend and shape events by will, to dictate history rather than be dictated to by it.", Rob Steen defines greatness as. Michael Phelps comes closest to being the perfect example for this definition. We are lucky to witness these greats take to the field and find perfection in their professions. While we salute them and admire their efforts, it would be a pity if we don't take home lessons on how to fight through difficulties and challenges through will and determination, much like what these athletes were faced with during their years of progress and growth. One thing that is common no matter whether you are a doctor or a Swimmer: There are no shortcuts.to success (A cliche' but one with deep truth in it).

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A round-up of some of the top moments from yesterday: 

1) Saina Nehwal's bronze medal was a moment of joy for all Indians. Although the fashion in which she achieved it was not quite the expected way. 

2) Usain Bolt's participation in the heat and the ease with which he qualified for the final. 

3) Michael Phelps last race....a gold.

4) The Australian Mitchell Watt, who came second in the Men's Long Jump final, had this to say, "I didn't even watch the Beijing long jump and I was sitting on my couch and had no aspirations to be an Olympian, so it's been a pretty crazy four years."

5) Mohamed Farah, a British Somali track athlete, won the Men's 10000m final. 6 Gold medals for Team Great Britain in a single day for the first time since 1908.

6) The cricket was halted in Jamaica. Why? Because the Women's 100m final was about to take place, which was displayed in the big screen at the ground. Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce won it. Yes, she was a Jamaican.

Olympics continues to entertain!

Ye Shiwen: A case of unfair treatment.

        Ye Shiwen, a 16-year-old Chinese swimmer, won gold in the women's 400m individual medley event, setting a world record of 4min and 28.43sec. The final 50m of the length was covered in 28.93 seconds - Ryan Lochte, the American gold medalist covered the same distance in 29.10 seconds. This stunned the world. But in some quarters, it raised doubts, suspicions even of the incredible nature of this athlete's performance. 

John Leonard, the executive director of the World Swimming Coaches Association, has this to say: 

"We want to be very careful about calling it doping.The one thing I will say is that history in our sport will tell you that every time we see something, and I will put quotation marks around this, ‘unbelievable’, history shows us that it turns out later on there was doping involved. That last 100m was reminiscent of some old East German swimmers, for people who have been around a while. It was reminiscent of the 400m individual medley by a young Irish woman in Atlanta."

Clearly, he wasn't accusing her of doping. He was only being "very careful". 


Let's go further into this topic. In the 2010 Asian Games, Ye recorded a time of 4min and 33.79sec - that's a solid 5 seconds slower than the world record she managed few days ago. In terms of percentage improved, it's stands at 1.95%. These are great numbers. Numbers that tell the story of rigorous effort over many years, and the training that goes into raking up the medals.


Another athlete, Ruta Meilutyte, a 15-year-old Lithuanian girl based in Plymouth, and trained by English coach, John Rudd, went on to take gold in the women's 100m backstroke, timed at 1:05.47 (In 2011, she set a national record of 1:07.96). In terms of percentage improved, it stands at almost 4%. A four percent improvement for Ruta in one year; a two percent improvement for Ye in the last two years. John Leonard has said nothing about Ruta's performance. 


Not for one second am I questioning the authenticity of Ruta's incredible win, no. That would be ignorant and stupid of me to do so. I am only raising a few questions. Why was the Chinese girl alone looked at with suspicion? Why did only only her astounding success evoke suspicions of doubt and fraud in commentators (BBC's Claire Balding) and an experienced coach (John Leonard), when it's already been confirmed she's clean (by the IOC)?

Personally, I wasn't very thrilled about the Chinese taking over the pool (Yes, I am rooting for USA to top the medals tally), but this comment irked me beyond limit; it screamed of jealousy and clearly, an inability to take defeat in a sportsman-like attitude. Time to resign, Mr. Leonard, no room for prejudice here.