Swimming & summer Olympics!

Every four years when the Olympics are held, Doordarshan is one channel that airs the events live or sometimes a repeat telecast of the event. And as a kid i used to hate watching the swimming and boxing (both for different reasons) events on the TV. Swimming never made any sense to me as i had never jumped into the pool till then and boxing because i thought it was inhuman to box or punch one another (which i even to this day think so). But during my engineering days i got into the pool to learn how to swim thanks to my ever pestering friend, i had to oblige and accompany him. Hmm, i feared initially but then everyone knows this who's been in water and then you over come this particular point when you know how to swim. Though to this day i have not perfected the art, i know a bit of it so that i can survive if i ever fell into water. ;) But somehow once i tried out swimming, i had huge interest for the sport and respect too. It requires a lot of stamina and hell a lot strength and not to mention the right technique!

Now again the Olympics sporting extravaganza has started and DD sports channel is airing the events. Swimming not to mention seems to be there the event that happens to be shown every time i get to see the TV! Somehow over the years, I've found a soft spot for the sport (only watching). And, also thanks to the stars like Alexander Popov, Pieter van den Hoogenband, Ian Thorpe to name a few. They've popularized this sport. Bought commercial interests into this sport. And as Ian Thorpe made an exit everybody thought he was the greatest swimmer the world has ever seen but, there was another guy around the corner called Micheal phelps. I fail to understand how he manages to beat his own records every now and then. It's like he is competing against himself. New records and then again new records. He just keeps going. And if you check the wiki site, there is this 2008 Beijing summer Olympics games section in the article where there is an table showing what he is going to do and already done in the Olympics this year! I was just wondering, 8 days flat the guy will compete every single day to fight for the 8 Golds that he is expected to win! 8 days! How can he concentrate and keep his body together for so many days is the question! I just can't believe a person can stay focused so long at such high competitive level to achieve this. Whatever, i wish he does it. I'm a huge fan of the guy now after reading through his achievements. He has already won 3 Golds out of the 3 events he competed in and the next 5 events are eagerly awaited. :)