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Phelps better than anybody at the moment

Michael is going to win all the individual events, writes Mark Spitz

Michael Phelps is the star. If I were him, I would ask for my part of the money from the television channels, and from the International Swimming Federation (FINA). Everybody watches TV because of him. If he was not there they would not have watched. Everybody makes money out of it, so shouldn’t he reclaim his part? It is something that has to be put forward to the President of FINA.

On Sunday, I was a little bit worried. Nobody had swum any finals in the morning before. Generally it is more difficult to swim quickly in the morning when you have trained regularly in the afternoons.

Big advantage

I was also able to break World records in the morning and that is exactly what Michael did. He is much better swimming in the morning than the rest and that is going to be a big advantage for him. It is not going to be easy but I believe that will help him win.

Swimming in the morning is usually pure routine with the heats, and that is true even more so for Michael, who has the speed and need not worry too much about reaching the finals which are always in the evening — the majority perform better in the evening.

Michael seems to have adapted to the new timetable better than anybody and he is performing better than anybody at the moment.

I appreciate a lot what Jason Lezak did in the 4x100m relay. He swam the 100m with the best time ever! To win and break this record is really incredible. Michael is still on course for eight gold medals that is why he is in Beijing.

In the final of the 400m medley, he was already leading at the end of the 100m breaststroke. He had never done that before against Ryan Lochte. The race was already over with 125 metres still to go. With 25 metres left of the breaststroke he was already out in front and the race was wrapped up in that moment he declared: “I’m going to win this”.

When Michael says that in spite of everything he does not feel good, he is not telling the truth. It is his psychological base against his opponents — a psychological weapon to reinforce himself.

He is telling his opponents that they cannot beat him even if they swim the race of their lives. Even if the final had been in the afternoon I don’t believe they would have defeated him .

Michael is showing himself to be strong, calm, comfortable, quick and perfectly okay — everything has seemed easy for him. Michael is going to win all the individual events. I think the only problem he is going to face now is Ian Crocker in the 100m butterfly. He has the World record but Michael has beaten him over the last four years. — Distributed by Asia Features

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