Top 20 Most Significant Swim Stories Of 2016: #2 – Phelps, Bowman, Legend, Lore & Legacy

SwimVortex continues a countdown of the most significant swimming stories of Olympic Year 2016.

Our series so far:

3. The Long Reach of Ledecky 4. The Marshall Art Of Peaty Power 5. Murphy’s Law; USA Rules 6: Dolphins Down Under But No Underdogs 7: The colour is Gold: Olympic gold 8: Bob Bowman’s Golden Rules 9: The slow burn of Sarah Sjostrom and coaches 10: Mireia, Fred & The Alchemy Of If To When 11: Gregorio The Great 30-Lapper 12: Putting the Great Back Into Britain 13: Masters, Servants & Subsidies – a model of governance that has had its day 14: The ruinous nature of runes in an Olympic year 15: Custodians in Crisis: FINA – Same As It Ever Was 16: The Australia/ China interface highlights questions of faith & fair dinkum 17:  Schools Out; Schooling’s In: aspiration, inspiration and the impact of Michael Phelps 18. The Swimming Selfie 19. The Canadian Comeback  20. On Hosszu Heights

Today, Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time; the greatest swimmer of all-time.

No 2 – Phelps, Bowman, Legend, Lore, Legacy

The most intriguing thing about Michael Phelps is what we might write next about him in swimming terms. He will race no more; there are conclusions yet to be drawn about what has been; what remains to be seen is the kind of impact and legacy the greatest swimming and Olympic career in history has on the realm he relished in.

MP by PBK

MP by PBK

Michael Phelps – one last time – by PBK

No2? Yes. In 2016, most definitively, yes. Sadly, of course, but yes. Were it not so. Were it not the case that decades have gone by in which those who staked a rightful claim to No1 have been denied by cheats and the failure of the guardians of the sport. We’re not talking a list of swim stories selected by this author at SwimVortex. We’re talking  about Olympic gold medals; we’re talking about the ultimate prizes in swimming, the things that far outweigh the value of a ‘swimmer of the year’ here of a ‘performance of the decade’ there.

Federations domestic and those from that realm who represent you – the swimmer, the coach, the parent, the sibling, the support crew, the sponsor, and swimming as a sport – in international waters have, in the words of Phelps’ coach and mentor Bob Bowman, ‘dropped the ball’ when it comes to ensuring clean sport. The custodians of swimming have dropped that ball down, season upon season upon season.

Phelps, Bowman and his Golden Rules played a significant role in stating it like it is in this Olympic Years 2016. There is now more Phelps can now do beyond the fine work at his Foundation, Swim School and learning the coaching ropes; there is more he can do about making sure the swimmer, the swim, the athletic achievement is the headline.

The swimmer of all swimmers wants swimming to be big, bigger. The sport will need to turn history on its head in favour of clean sport and fair play to achieve new status.

In terms of swimming, swimming performance and the long-term impact of those things, our list is clear: Michael Phelps No1; Katie Ledecky, No2, Adam Peaty, No3. That is the aquatic athletic podium for 2016 here at SwimVortex.

Tomorrow, on the last day of the year, our No1 will speak, in part, to what Bowman and Phelps raised in Rio, August, 2016, on the cusp of a spectacular curtain-closer to a career that built a pantheon within the pantheon.

Bowman and Phelps broke the mould when they set aside the all-too-oft-heard mantra of “we can’t say anything – we have a job to do” when asked about the crisis of doping and accompanying famine of good governance.

Michael Phelps, Bob Bowman, from the back cover of the Golden Rules, [courtesy St Martin’s Press]

The Team USA coach and head coach to the men’s swimming team, Bowman could hardly have been more clear as he spoke at a press conference in the Samba room at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

He noted that yes, indeed, the swimmers had a job to do and that was and had to be their singular focus, but he added:

“I would have to say from a personal standpoint that it is  very concerning to me that our governing bodies have dropped the ball on this and the system is broken and has to be fixed.”

Asked  what he would do if he were FINA President, Phelps said:

“Don’t ask me that one. Don’t get me going: I don’t want to political about it … I agree with Bob that its something that has to be changed in all sports.

His voice creaking with irritation and emotion, Phelps suggested he had never raced in clean waters, adding:

“We all want clean sports. That’s all we want. We want everybody to be on the same playing field. I can honestly say in my career I don’t know if I’ve ever competed in a clean sport. It’s upsetting. But there’s not really a lot that I can control, but me. That’s the main priority for me. We’ve had this problem for how many Olympics and its sad that we can’t control it; that someone who is in charge cannot control this. I can’t say I’ve ever been in a clean competition.”

The voices of Bowman and Phelps lend serious weight to the pressing need to get to grips on doping and governance issues: it was Bowman’s ‘my boy won’t be coming back’ until you dump the shiny suits that signed the death warrant for the bodysuits in 2009, a deadline of January 1, 2010, set for a return to textile within 24 hours of the American coach making known his views.

Michael Phelps of the United States of America (USA)Press Conference

Michael Phelps of the United States of America (USA)Press Conference

That theme is far from done if Phelps is serious when he talks about wanting to change swimming; when he talks about wanting to make the sport big.

This 2016 Olympic year was a watershed for a Movement that has been too slow to change bad culture and its vanity of the blazers autonomy.

Bravo – at least 23 times over – to Bowman and Phelps for playing their significant part in telling it like it is. The picture they painted in a few short sentences in Rio paints more than a thousand words of grief-laden copy in honour of those deprived, nay robbed, of their rightful rewards in elite, world-class sport.

Those 23 golds, those 28 medals will shine all the more brightly come the day when they no longer have to share the limelight and headlines with phrases such as “doping soaked Games” and references to “the Blazers who did nothing about State Plan 14:25 do nothing again when given the chance to send Russia and everyone else the clearest of messages” – and so on and so forth.

And so we turn to the No 1 athletic performer and performance of 2016. With five gold and one silver, Phelps emerged from Rio 2016 as the most decorated swimmer of this year, all Olympic years back to 2004, and all Olympic years put together across all sport.

Phelps: GOAT

Our archive piece on Phelps and Bowman below serves as tribute and recollection enough for this place at this time. Phelps reset the bar on swimming limits by taking hold of it, snapping it in two and plunging the shards down to the seabed. “No limits”. Well, there are, somewhere out there in swimming speed in a world of water, basic suit and unassisted swimmer – but you wouldn’t want to say what those limits are while people like Michael Phelps walk the waters.

(L-R) Michael Phelps, Chad Le Clos and Laszlo Cseh – shared silver at Rio2016 – by Patrick B. Kraemer

Three into one does go: Michael Phelps and Laszlo Cseh soak up history – by Patrick B. Kraemer

His career was thrilling, sensational, at once maddening and enhancing for rivals. If there were ever a golden moments for those taking silver, then look to the races of Phelps to find them. Just ask Laszlo Cseh, the Hungarian age peer of Phelps who claimed three human golds behind “The Alien” at Beijing 2008, as he put it with a wry smile of resignation. How fine it was, then, to see them share silver in Rio – three-way, no less than the other significant player in Phelps’ 200’fly career, Chad le Clos.

In Rio, Phelps founded the Quad club in a lounge beyond that opened in 1964 by Dawn Fraser, who was joined in the triple suite by Krisztina Egerszegi in 1996. Phelps muscled in as the first man in the club at London 2012. That was to have been his swansong. What, share a plinth in the pantheon? Not his style. The 200m medley in Rio delivered the first solo membership of the Quad club. Appropriate that all four strokes should play a part in that club-creating moment from the most versatile swimming in history. Breaststroke would have been the only stroke I would have put money on his missing the bullseye on at the peak of his years: had he made way for a backstroke focus, he would surely have rattled the backstroke bar, too, his ultimate choices a recognition and tribute to the excellence of Aaron Peirsol, among others.

Sizing up – by Patrick B. Kraemer

Aqua, through and through – by PBK

Phelps left the fast lane with the following entries in the all-time top 20 lists:

7/20 – 200m free 4/10 & 8/20 – 100 ‘fly WR 6/10 & 10/20 – 200 ‘fly WR 6/10 & 8/20 – 200IM 3/10 & 4/20 – 400IM WR

Take shiny suits away and we also find this among his accolades in the departure lounge:

All-time Top 10: 200m backstroke All-time Top 20: 100 backstroke All-time Top 30 100m freestyle

Five times round the rings – Michael Phelps, 23 gold, 28 medals in all.

The Medals Table To End Them All Event G S B Olympic Games 23 3 2 World Championships (L/C) 26 6 1 World Championships (S/C) 1 0 0 Pan Pacific Championships 16 5 0 Total 66 14 3

And here are the World records, 39 world records (29 individual, 10 relay) in all, that surpassing the 33 world records (26 individual, 7 relay) of Mark Spitz, whose seven golds at Munich 1972 were surpassed by Phelps and his pieces of eight at Beijing 2008. Johnny “Tarzan” Weissmuller has 67 world records to his name in some references from an era in which standardisation of long-course pools and the division of yards and metres, as well as the rationalisation of “official’ events and ratification processes became part of the measuring stick of the sport. Apply the modern measure and Phelps is way out ahead on world-record count.

Michael Phelps – ok, I’ll say this one ore time… by Patrick B. Kraemer

There were 16 medley marks, 11 on butterfly and 2 on freestyle, the rest were relays, two of them – his last two, short-course marks, Phelps’ career a long-course affair. One marks were set in home waters, while the Olympics accounted for eight records, all but one in shiny suit and reflecting the apparely-assisted fast-forward on the clock at the time. Bowman, when calling on FINA to set a date to sink the suits and return swimming too swimmers, declared that all marks set in shiny suits should be scrapped. They never were, FINA finding it hard to scrap what it had allowed years beyond failing to scrap what it hadn’t allowed but kept as the official standard and record of the sport despite State Plan 14:25 and a weight of evidence that doping had fuelled 20 years of ‘progress’.

(x) – indicates the number of times Phelps had set the record at the given moment

Michael Phelps – World Records  – Chronological order No. Event Time Place Date 1 200m Butterfly 1:54.92 Austin, Texas, USA March 30, 2001 2 200m Butterfly (2) 1:54.58 Fukuoka, JPN July 24, 2001 3 400m Medley 4:11.09 Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, USA August 15, 2002 4 4×100m Medley relay 3:33.48 Yokohama, JPN August 29, 2002 5 400m Medley (2) 4:10.73 Indianapolis, Indiana, USA April 6, 2003 6 200m Medley 1:57.94 Santa Clara, California, USA June 29, 2003 7 200m Butterfly (3) 1:53.93 Barcelona, ESP July 22, 2003 8 200m Medley (2) 1:57.52 Barcelona, ESP July 24, 2003 9 100m Butterfly 51.47 Barcelona, ESP July 25, 2003 10 200m Medley (3) 1:56.04 Barcelona, ESP July 25, 2003 11 400m Medley (3) 4:09.09 Barcelona, ESP July 27, 2003 12 200m Medley (4) 1:55.94 College Park, Maryland, USA August 9, 2003 13 400m Medley (4) 4:08.41 Long Beach, California, USA July 7, 2004 14 400m Medley (5) 4:08.26 Athens, GRE – OG August 14, 2004 15 200m Butterfly (4) 1:53.80 Victoria, British Columbia, CAN August 17, 2006 16 4×100m Freestyle relay 3:12.46 Victoria, British Columbia, CAN August 19, 2006 17 200m Medley (5) 1:55.84 Victoria, British Columbia, CAN August 20, 2006 18 200m Butterfly (5) 1:53.71 Columbia, Missouri, USA February 17, 2007 19 200m Freestyle 1:43.86 Melbourne, Victoria, AUS March 27, 2007 20 200m Butterfly (6) 1:52.09 Melbourne, Victoria, AUS March 28, 2007 21 200m Medley (6) 1:54.98 Melbourne, Victoria, AUS March 29, 2007 22 4×200m Freestyle relay 7:03.24 Melbourne, Victoria, AUS March 30, 2007 23 400m Medley (6) 4:06.22 Melbourne, Victoria, AUS April 1, 2007 24 400m Medley (7) 4:05.25 Omaha, Nebraska, USA June 29, 2008 25 200m Medley (7) 1:54.80 Omaha, Nebraska, USA July 4, 2008 26 400m Medley (8) 4:03.84 Beijing, CHN – OG August 10, 2008 27 4×100m Freestyle relay (2) 3:08.24 Beijing, CHN – OG August 11, 2008 28 200m Freestyle (2) 1:42.96 Beijing, CHN – OG August 12, 2008 29 200m Butterfly (7) 1:52.03 Beijing, CHN – OG August 13, 2008 30 4×200m Freestyle relay (2) 6:58.56 Beijing, CHN – OG August 13, 2008 31 200m Medley (8) 1:54.23 Beijing, CHN – OG August 15, 2008 32 4×100m Medley relay (2) 3:29.34 Beijing, CHN – OG August 17, 2008 33 100m Butterfly (2) 50.22 Indianapolis, Indiana, USA July 9, 2009 34 200m Butterfly (8) 1:51.51 Rome, ITA July 29, 2009 35 4×200m Freestyle relay 6:58.55 Rome, ITA July 31, 2009 36 100m Butterfly (3) 49.82 Rome, ITA August 1, 2009 37 4×100m Medley relay (3) 3:27.28 Rome, ITA August 2, 2009 38 4×100m Medley relay (s/c) 3:20.71 Manchester, GBR December 18, 2009 39 4×100m Freestyle relay (s/c) 3:03.30 Manchester, GBR December 19, 2009

There is so much more than can be and will be written of Phelps but not here, not at this moment. For now, here are some of my favourite medal moments, after which we visit the archive in celebration of  Phelps, The Score To Planet Phelps, Its Pantheon, Symphony & Stars – and its composer, Bob Bowman.

My Favourite Solo Medal Moments

Michael Phelps meets the family – and gets to hug Boomer Bob – by Patrick B. Kraemer

All of Phelps’ wins were tremendous, of course, Here’s my ranking of favourite medal moments – and a brief why:

200m butterfly, Rio 2016 – Gold. As Phelps poked his head through a curtain stage left and folk started to wonder whether he might be a boy fit to grab Ian Thorpe‘s headline-grabbing power away, Don Talbot said: “Well, he hasn’t achieved anything yet. Longevity is the key to greatness.” Phelps slapped a poster of Thorpe on his wall and stared it down every day until the job was done. In Rio after reclaiming the 200 ‘fly crown – the very spike of his return – he said:  “Just to be able to see the No 1 next to my name again in the 200 ‘fly, one more time: couldn’t have been scripted any better. I told Bob when I came back how bad I wanted that 200 ‘fly. I came in on a mission and that mission was accomplished.” No disrespect at all to Chad Le Clos but there was a sense of a lost jewel in a crown finding its way home in the last 200m butterfly in the career of the greatest swimmer there ever was. 400m medley, Athens 2004 – Gold. First gold; first WR at the Olympics – at 19. It was thrilling, a herald for the greatest haul – and how – in Olympic history. The biggest winning margin in history. Here was the evidence that we were looking at the versatile swimmer to end them all. 200m freestyle, Beijing 2008 – Gold: we all know that the suits made a difference, to Phelps, too; and most …

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