September 5, 2008
Sun coverage: Michael Phelps
Michael Phelps
Photo gallery: Images of Michael Phelps from throughout his career.
Soundbites on Phelps' Olympic performance
Comments from the world of sports and beyond on Michael Phelps' record-setting Games.
Sun archives: Phelps out of the pool
Despite what some may believe, swimmer Michael Phelps doesn't actually live in the water.
Phelps in the fast lane
This is what 24 hours in the life of Michael Phelps look like these days:
Phelps a winner on 'Oprah'
Before Michael Phelps could finally return home to Baltimore, the Olympian needed to visit a fan in Chicago.
Phelps to donate $1M bonus
Michael Phelps has long yearned to attract more kids to swimming and to teach them about the pursuit of dreams, using his own life as the textbook.
Catching up with Phelps much easier on land
There was a big personality waiting to leap out of Michael Phelps. He was just waiting for someone to ask the right questions after he waved to a crowd of fans in a celebratory parade hosted by Walt Disney's Magic Kingdom yesterday.
Swimmer Phelps to host SNL opener
Olympic star will try his hand at late-night comedy
A hero's welcome, a new life in fame
The life Michael Phelps returns to in Baltimore won't be like the one he left
Laura Vozzella: If you live near Michael Phelps, don't answer the phone
How's this for gold-medal motivation? On July 31, just days before he headed to Beijing, Michael Phelps shelled out $36,538.46 for property taxes on his $1.7 million Fells Point townhouse.
Phelps' life denies colleges' drinking argument
Somewhere in Maryland, there's a state employee who owns a piece of the gold Michael Phelps will bring home from Beijing. This fellow was never part of MP's training team, and neither mentor nor boyhood friend. In fact, he's someone Phelps probably doesn't like to think about - the state trooper on duty when the great athlete did something foolish and dangerous. The trooper stopped Phelps from driving out of Salisbury under the influence of alcohol, saving not only the Olympian's life but possibly someone else's. The man-dolphin magnificence we just saw in the Summer Games might never have occurred had that trooper not been there for Phelps one night in November 2004.
Rick Maese: Dreaming for all of us
His arms are long enough to wrap around a Buick. His hands are as big as baseball mitts, and those feet would fit snugly in clown shoes. While his shoulders are broad, his lean frame would slide into a crack in the wall. In the afternoon, the sun casts a geometric shadow that's all sharp angles and long lines. It's easy to see that Michael Phelps is an amazing swimmer. He looks the part in every way possible.
1 day, 2 golds
Fourth gold: 200 fly -- Aug. 13; Fifth gold: 800 free relay -- Aug. 13
Ray Frager: Riding wave of interest in Phelps
Looking through the sports media notebook while wondering when The Sun's Beijing correspondents are going to get an interview with General Tso:
Phelps trading cards, memorabilia bring high prices
Michael Phelps' remarkable Beijing performance will certainly bring riches his way, but it is also putting money in the pockets of collectors who snapped up Phelps memorabilia before the Olympics.
Companies vie to hand Phelps money
Swimmer's star is high, but future fame uncertain
Phelps' pool plans uncertain
Michael Phelps has backed away from a previous comment he made about purchasing a pool in Baltimore, saying at a news conference yesterday that he's not sure of his plans.
Why we need this hero
We are fascinated with the "underdog" story, enthralled whenever someone can rise above and overcome the challenges set before him.
Now Phelps tackles fame
Swimmer adjusting to rush of media, fan attention after record-setting Games
Phelps talks about purchasing pool
Olympic gold medal winner Michael Phelps said last night that he is starting a new endeavor involving a pool he and coach Bob Bowman are purchasing in Baltimore.
Phelps and his 700,000 friends
Yes, Michael Phelps has been called a rock star. But online - at least on Facebook - the Rodgers Forge swimmer is actually much bigger than that.
Phelps to rest, reinvent
After a break, shorter events might dot star's path to gold in 2012, coaches say
Rick Maese: Phelps should just keep going
When London calls, swimmer will have answer
Bush praises Phelps in and out of pool
President Bush praised Olympic champion Michael Phelps yesterday for his performance in the swimming pool and outside it.
Phelps completes historic quest
Rodgers Forge native wins 8th gold of Beijing Games in medley relay, breaking Spitz's 36-year-old record; 'Every day it seems like I'm in sort of a dream world'
Only race left for Phelps is against other sports legends
Michael Phelps has left us only with questions of history.
Rick Maese: Phelps cements place as greatest
A frenzy of golden energy, Michael Phelps exited the pool, shaking water off his lithe and lean body. Onto the pool deck splashed the droplets - those Baltimore roots, the memories from Greece and the immaculate show he'd just put on in China.
Phelps' eight golds, race by race
It's been quite a ride. Michael Phelps has been bold. He's been dominating. He's been lucky. And he's even been mortal when his goggles filled with water like an age-group swimmer. The second gold, a teammate assisted, saving the day. The seventh gold, give an assist to the Omega timing touchpad. (By the way, Omega is one of his sponsors.) But in the end, with Sunday morning's win, he became the first swimmer to win eight gold medals in the same Olympics. Here's a look back at how he did it.
Phelps rallies, makes history by a hair
Swimmer's victory by a hundredth of a second puts him within one win of a record 8 gold medals
Phelps never bigger; test of time looms
He and Spitz set 7-goal standard but in varied way
Rick Maese: Good to the last drop
He shows great wall of own to out-touch foe for gold No. 7
Spitz relates to Phelps 36 years after feat
They are both tied to the number seven, as in medals. They both swam six of the same events and set world records in all of them. They were both the talk of the sporting world.
Rick Maese: Teen, Olympians cheer each other on
The day the Olympics began, before the Opening Ceremony fireworks exploded, before the giant torch lit up the night sky and before Michael Phelps began blowing up world records right and left, 6,800 miles away, Emily Long sat down at her laptop and filed her dispatch.
Golden quirks
Think you know everything about Phelps? Here are eight of his lesser-known traits
Where only swimmers' best will do
For Murray Stephens and the North Baltimore Aquatic Club, effort is everything
Rick Maese: Phelps' home schooling
Swimmer has earned the glory, but sisters showed him the way
Baltimore TV soaks up the Phelps-Hoff splash
The hometown crowd is watching Michael Phelps and his unprecedented Olympics success in near-record numbers, making Baltimore the highest-rated TV market for this year's Games and helping WBAL, Channel 11, absolutely trounce the prime-time competition since Friday night's opening ceremonies.
Phelps stands alone in Olympic history
Swimmer wins two more races, sets mark with 11 career gold medals; he stays on track to break Spitz's record for single Games
Bill's Rant
Bill Ordine's rant: Forgetting Spitz's golden ticket
More than three decades ago, Mark Spitz was the American super-athlete with enough gold hanging around his neck to qualify him for his own safety deposit box at Fort Knox.
Phelps wins 200 free, now 3-for-3
Swimmer stays perfect in Beijing with third victory, third world record, tying Olympic mark with ninth career gold medal
Rick Maese: Phelps' clear destiny
After another world record in the 200 freestyle, these 8 Olympic gold medals appear his to lose
200 free final brings back Athens for Phelps
Despite finishing third in 2004, swimmer has fond memories of high-powered showdown
Phelps' Olympic quest on track
U.S. team comes from behind for dramatic win in 400 freestyle relay; Hoff wins silver medal in 400 freestyle
Phelps' opening race has U.S. revved up
Swimmer's record-breaking performance astonishes, inspires other Olympians
Phelps' shining win
Olympian grasps his first gold of the Games, breaks his old world record
Rick Maese: A record start for Phelps
The race for history started this way: the lean swimmer stretching on the block and channeling adrenaline, his icy stare directed solely at the pool. His sights were not set on eight gold medals. For today, for this race, one would be enough.
Phelps low-key on arrival to China
Michael Phelps sneaked into Beijing almost unnoticed. He's unlikely to go out that way.
Phelps' voyage
From Rodgers Forge to the brink of Beijing, the swimmer hasn't always been on cruise control
Rick Maese: Phelps homeward bound
It was raining outside when her youngest left the nest.
Rally to honor Phelps and Hoff
A rally will be held at 7:15 p.m. Friday in downtown Towson to honor Baltimore County residents Michael Phelps and Katie Hoff, who are in Beijing to compete on the U.S. Olympic swim team.
Competitive drive fuels Phelps, Hoff
For local Olympic swimmers, heartfelt hopes become big realities
Phelps, Hoff up to the challenge
Rivals no match for the local swimmers at U.S. Olympic trials
Rick Maese: Spitz sees Phelps within striking distance
And now the race is on. They've leapt from the starting blocks. In one lane, expectations. In another, hope. And in a third, speculation.
Phelps in a world of his own
Rodgers Forge swimmer nips Lochte, sets mark in 200-meter individual medley
Rick Maese: Olympics will shine Phelps-like spotlight on Hoff
In the universe of hypotheticals, the most popular impossibility buzzing around the pool is this:
U.S. Olympic Trials
Few are multitasking at U.S. Olympic trials
Phelps, Hoff in multiple events, but not many follow their example
On Sons And Superstitions
Rick Maese: Lucky seat 13 for Phelps' mother
Some think it's all that training and dedication, a life spent in the swimming pool and an adolescence timed with a stopwatch. Others think it's inexplicable genes, his flexibility, a long, lean body and limbs that never seem to end. And still others point to the fancy swimsuit, designed with the aid of NASA technology and capable of keeping even John Daly afloat.
Hoff races to finish; Phelps wins 200M butterfly
In the eyes of the world, Katie Hoff has always been a great swimmer. That was obvious, even when she was 14 years old.
U.S. Olympic Trials
Phelps free and easy
Shortly after Michael Phelps finished the 200-meter freestyle last night, Mark Schubert, the venerable coach of the U.S. swim team, walked down onto the pool deck inside Qwest Center and threw an arm around the Rodgers Forge native.
Opening record for Phelps
Throughout Michael Phelps' amazing swimming career, only a handful of men have had the courage, the conditioning and the competitive moxie to race him in the 400-meter individual medley and match him stroke for stroke.
A sea change for swimming
As a young man, Michael Phelps dreamed of the day he would, in his words, change the sport of swimming in America.
Olympic Trials
A freestyle attitude for Phelps at trials
Michael Phelps isn't shy about how much he loves to play poker. He plays it with friends, plays it in casinos with strangers, and sometimes plays it online, late at night.
Phelps, Hoff have busy trials schedules
In the competitive run-up to the U.S. Olympic swimming team trials, Michael Phelps and Katie Hoff carried a heavy workload.
Phelps' game plan simplifies winning
Before his second race of the day, the 100-meter backstroke, Michael Phelps got succinct advice from his coach: Be first.
Swimming
Phelps, Hoff warm up for trials
The pieces of Katie Hoff's aquatic Chinese puzzle are beginning to come together. One stroke strengthens another. Distances seem to sh