Word: races
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...hours after Michael Phelps won his first gold medal and set his first world record in Beijing, he called his mom. "It seemed quite unusual," Debbie Phelps, who was traveling back to her hotel with daughters Hillary and Whitney after watching Michael's race, told TIME. "He just wanted to hear our voices. I think it was important for him to talk to his mom and sisters at that time...
That singular determination was obvious at the Water Cube this week. In race after race, setting record after record, Phelps kept his body and mind trained on a set of goals that only he and coach Bob Bowman were privy to for these Games. While he still won't reveal the specifics, he did admit that he wrote them down - the first time he has documented his mission at a meet - and that "it all happened this week...
When you're talented enough to break world records nearly every time you race, and do it not just once or twice but eight times in a single meet, with the entire world watching, then half your battle is not against the swimmers in the other lanes but against your own demons, the ones that creep up when you hear your name announced over the loudspeaker or when you take your position on the blocks, ready to plunge into the water...
Take Saturday, for example. Prior to the 100-m butterfly event, Bowman thought the race might be close and figured Phelps could use an extra boost. So he passed along a piece of information that was news to Phelps: that his closest rival in the 100-m butterfly, Serbian Milorad Cavic, had told the media that he thought Phelps losing the race would be good for swimming. The Spitz record of seven golds in a single Games is a hallowed one, and one that has stood for 36 years - so it's understandable that some swimmers are loath...
...rings. Torres, who is now the second-fastest woman in the world in the 50-m free, continued to prove that age is no limit, missing the gold by the same tiny margin with which Phelps won the 100-m butterfly. "That was awesome," said de Bruijn, of Torres' race. "I've got so much respect for her. She was one of my biggest rivals when I was still swimming. She quit for many years, she had a baby, and then to come back - she is a role model for a lot of swimmers, especially older swimmers...