Phelps Mania Sees Ridiculous, Raises Insanity

What Michael Phelps accomplished over the last week was as compelling and phenomenal as the Olympic Games get. I can say this with some level of confidence because I actually made a point to watch all of his races and found myself cheering for a sport I previously never cared about, and really, still don’t. (I did come up short of chanting “U-S-A!” at the bar Saturday night with hundreds of other idiots.) As far as I can recall, this is more than I can say for any of the other Games that have occurred in my lifetime. ↵↵Having said that, I’ve been completely fine with all the hype Phelps has received. I mean, these are the Olympics, what else are they gonna harp on? “American kicks world’s ass” is a great story. But this quote, from Brendan Hansen, one of Phelps’ teammates, takes the Phelps Mania to a whole new level of absurdity:↵

↵↵⇥“Michael is the biggest thing that sport has ever seen. Not swimming, but sport in general. He just made the pressure putt to win the U.S. Open. He just won the Tour of France. He just knocked out Muhammad Ali. And he did it in one week.”↵↵Actually, no, he didn’t make a pressure putt or win the TDF or knock out Ali. He swam fast. And no matter how amazing his eight golds may be, the accomplishment still isn’t bigger, than say, the Giants beating the Patriots in the Super Bowl. Or Kansas’ comeback to beat Memphis in the National Championship game. Or probably a half-dozen other sporting events that have occurred in this calendar year alone. ↵↵Hopefully the hype-machine will shutdown this week, however, and we can go back to focusing on what these Games were really all about from the start: smog. ↵

↵