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August 13, 2004 2:05 pm

Phelps' 'bar extremely high'

By Scott Pitoniak

Gannett News Service

ATHENS, Greece - Michael Phelps has said on several occasions that if he returns to the United States with just one gold medal hanging from his neck, he will consider this Olympics a success. But nobody is buying that.

The weight of that one medal would feel much heavier than the weight of eight. It would hang like a shot put from his neck. It would be a reminder not of glittering success, but of tarnished expectations.

Phelps has a million reasons for wanting to make at least as big a splash as Mark Spitz did when he won a record seven gold medals at the 1972 Games in Munich. That's how much money one of Phelps' sponsors, Speedo, will pay the Baltimore native if he equals Spitz's mark.

But as enticing as that might sound to a 19-year-old, Phelps' motivation goes well beyond money. ``It's about doing something no one else has done before,'' he said.

By that standard, only eight will be enough.

``He has set the bar extremely high for himself,'' said Bob Bowman, the man who has coached Phelps the past eight years. ``If it were any one else, I might tell them they were being totally unrealistic. But there's something special about this young man. He has the perfect body, mind, skills and motivation to give something like this a legitimate shot. It won't be easy, but it's definitely not unrealistic in his case.''

Spurred on by older sisters who were swimmers, Phelps eased into the pool as a 7-year-old. For weeks, he only swam the backstroke because he was afraid to stick his head underwater. Once he conquered those fears, he became a natural, and now he's intent on conquering the world.

The prospecting for gold begins Saturday when he competes in the 400-meter individual medley, an event in which he is the reigning world champion. In the ensuing days, Phelps will be not only the most scrutinized athlete at these Games, but also the busiest.

Unlike his swimming idol, Spitz, who swam two strokes (freestyle and butterfly), Phelps will swim the 200 and 400 IM, the 100 and 200 butterfly and the 200 freestyle. He also will compete in two relays. At Munich, Spitz swam in four individual events and three relays.

Between heats, semifinals and finals, Phelps could wind up swimming 20 races at these Olympics.

``Endurance shouldn't be a problem for him,'' Bowman says. ``This is a kid who spends five hours a day in the pool, seven days a week, 365 days a year. He's even in the pool on Christmas morning. I can't chase him out. He just loves being in the water. He seems most at peace there.''

At 6-foot-4, 195 pounds, with hands the size of catcher's mitts, Phelps has the ideal body to torpedo his way through the water. But his greatness goes beyond his physique, versatility and remarkable endurance.

His abhorrence of failure and his ability to learn from it may be what sets him apart.

``I absolutely hate to lose,'' he says. ``And if I do, I'm going to make sure to find a way, through hard work and smarts, not to let it happen again.''

After losing to rival Ian Crocker in the 100m butterfly at the 2003 world championships, Phelps tacked a picture of Crocker celebrating the victory next to his bed. When Phelps arose at 6 each morning to head for the pool, the first sight he saw was Crocker's smiling face.

Before the world championships, the coach of Australian swim star Ian Thorpe said Phelps wasn't in the same league as the Thorpedo. Bowman conveniently slipped a copy of the comments in Phelps' mailbox at the pool. The teenager who has become known as the Swiminator wound up breaking five world records at the meet. Thorpe broke none.

``It's lunacy to give Michael any ammunition whatsoever,'' former Olympic gold medalist Rowdy Gaines told Time magazine last week. ``Giving more fuel in the way of criticism is suicidal when it comes to swimming against him.''

Spitz, a 54-year-old California stockbroker, says he is pulling for Phelps to equal or break his record.

``I'm just as curious as the next person to see how he's going to go about it,'' Spitz recently told reporters. ``The pressure is going to be enormous because the expectation level is so high.''

Spitz is familiar with stratospheric expectations. Before the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, he predicted he would win six gold medals. Although he won four medals - two relay golds, a silver in the 100m butterfly and a bronze in the 100 freestyle - many were disappointed because they had expected so much more.

When Spitz competed in his next Olympics as a 22-year-old, he let his performance do the talking.

Phelps would like nothing more than to do the same.

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