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Why's Everybody Hatin' on Michael Phelps?

by Christopher McIntosh
08/18/2008

Granted, much of my so-called research on this has been based on the musings of those in my extended social circle, but I think their comments speak to a larger strain of thought in Americana.

"He's got a chip on his shoulder."

"He's arrogant."

"He needs to learn how to win gracefully and answer reporters' questions."

I wish I had a more complex thought about this other than, "Really?!?!"

As Phelps said time after time, "I'm at a loss for words."

As one announcer put it after he set the record of 8 gold medals in a single Olympics (read that again), if he were a country unto himself, out of the nearly 200 competing he would be fifth in the overall gold medal count.

Mark Spitz, who held the previous record of 7 gold medals (and almost as impressively, 7 world records) at the 1972 games was effusive in his praise of Phelps. This is a guy who just days before had admitted publicly that he felt it was a major slight that no one had invited him to the games in case Phelps looked like he was going to break his record. He's no shrinking violet. If he thought Phelps had been rude, disrespectful, or otherwise acted unworthy of his crown he would have said so.

Instead, their interview turned into a lovefest. Spitz' commentary was so glowing that he nearly bowled over Phelps.

And that's the guy who got his record broken.

Phelps could have been terse or even just flat unavailable for the media countless nights where he had two-a-day swims, sometimes minutes apart. He wasn't. He stepped up to Andrea Kremers inane questions and answered them all the best he could.

If you watched closely, when he won, he didn't go crazy, pound his chest, and whoop it up like the 100 meter track sprinter did (which was, allow me to be an eight year old boy for a second, *awesome*--I counted, the last 7 steps he took he was cruising and celebrating and carrying on and he *still* broke the record by .03). Phelps, however, time after time acted like he'd done it before and just went about his business. Even when his goggles filled with water and nearly cost him a world record in one of his best events he didn't slam them to the deck, but tossed them disdainfully with kind of a rueful look.

But what about the other times he did celebrate? The times he did show emotion. One was in the 400 meter freestyle relay, an event the United States had owned until the 2000 Olympics. And this time they were a big time underdog. As Rowdy Gaines put it just before the race started (and I'm paraphrasing) "I've looked at this every possible way and I just don't see a way that the Americans could beat the French"

If he was right, shot at eight golds gone, in event 2. Chance to bring back the gold in what was once an American dominated event, gone.

And there's one more thing. The French (wrap your mind around that) talked trash prior to the race, claiming that they were going to "smash" the Americans because that's what they came here to do. And for 385 meters it looked like they were right. But then, as we all know, Jason Lezak completed his team's comeback against the reigning world record holder in the 100 by swimming a relay split that was the fastest in history by more than half a second.

This wasn't Secretariat. This was someone running down Secretariat.

Margin of victory--.08 seconds. Phelps whoops it up. Would you expect anything less?

Other time he got expressive? During the 100 meter butterfly--the 7th event and his shot at tying Spitz) he was 7th out of 8 after the turn, yet came back to win by one one hundredth of a second. They showed the high speed cameras from above and I've looked at least twenty times--I can't tell the difference between them. But he won. And exploded.

Would you expect anything less? What if it was his only individual event like Dara Torres? Would that make it okay? Why does the fact that he's so good mean that he can't get motivated by numbskulls like the Serbian swimmer Cavic who claimed it would be good for Phelps and good for swimming if he lost? Why is that having a "chip on his shoulder"? The only one with a chip on their shoulder here is Cavic, not Phelps. Why can't people celebrate this as a great American moment--Phelps got called out, looked like he was done, and pulled it out in the very, very last half stroke.

And he still chose not to stick it Cavic afterwards, simply telling the media that, yeah, he'd used it as motivation.

This guy cried at nearly every single one of his medal ceremonies, gave a bouquet of flowers after every race to the single mom who raised him, and has one of the sport's recent greats, Ian Thorpe, in his box. He genuinely seemed to enjoy the relays and his teammates don't have a cross word to say about him. Even NBA players were showing up to watch him.

Chip on his shoulder? The only one's I know with the chip on their shoulder are the one's who can't appreciate Michael Phelps and what he's done. Sometimes it's okay to appreciate a winner. Sports isn't all about cynicism and even if it was, there's one place where we can check it at the door.

The Olympics.