An amazing Olympic achievement

View from the cheap seats - As I write this column the Olympic Summer Games are nearly a week old and our Canadian athletes, including the list of hopefuls I gave you a heads up on last week, have yet to register a medal. I'm hoping that all changes in the very near future but for this particular topic I wanted to talk about someone who has had no problem finding the podium this year.

Swimmer extraordinaire Michael Phelps of the United States has heard his country's national anthem played five times already this week and each time it was played he, as well as his teammates in a couple of the events, has stood on the top spot of the aforementioned podium. Not only have all of Phelps' medals been of the shiny gold variety, but they have also all come via World Record breaking times.

Phelps has broken his own previous records in the 400 metre Individual Medley, the 200 metre Butterfly and the 200 metre Freestyle events and his teammates have helped him earn gold medals in record-breaking fashion in the 4 by 100 and 4 by 200 Freestyle Relay events. The five gold medals that he has won already this year have earned him a unique spot in history the only athlete to win eleven Olympic gold medals.

If he does what everyone expects he will do in his final three events, then Phelps will cement his legacy as the greatest swimmer in Olympic history and arguably the greatest Olympic athlete of all time. As I write this he has the 200 metre Individual Medley, the 100 metre Butterfly and the 4 by 100 metre Individual Medley Relay remaining and if he takes gold in all three of those events, he will surpass the mammoth seven single-Olympic gold medal performance of fellow countryman Mark Spitz.

Spitz set his remarkable milestone at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany, and at the tender age of nine I don't have much memory of it. I am happy this amazing achievement is happening at a time when I'm old enough, but still sound of mind enough, to remember and appreciate it. I have always maintained that the Olympics are the most spectacular and toughest of all sporting events.

These athletes train for four years for this two-week period. They have to be perfect every time they take to the proverbial field of their respective sport because there's no tomorrow, next week or next month. If they fail, it's another long four-year wait before they can think of redemption.

The window of opportunity is very small and for Phelps to be able to summon the mental fortitude as well as the physical prowess to be at the top of his game for eight of these events is really quite remarkable. I know he hasn't won it yet but I'm hoping that by the time you read this column Phelps will have eight gold medals - well, I'm hoping.

Let's give Canada seven or eight gold by then as well eh! Go Canada.