Michael Phelps is a name that will go down in history books inscribed with golden ink. The winner of an unprecedented eight gold medals in as many events, Phelps has ensured that he has earned his place among the great Olympians of the past and is arguably the greatest of them all.
Aptly nicknamed ‘The Baltimore Bullet’, the American swimmer now holds a total of seven world records - all of them broken during this year’s Summer Olympic Games in Beijing. Adding the eight medals to his previous tally in Athens gives Phelps a grand total of sixteen medals - fourteen of them being gold - a record in itself as the highest number ever won by an Olympic athlete.
However it’s not only Michael Phelps who has been making waves in the pool. The swimming world is still reeling from shock at the flood of world records being broken in the water cube - often going beyond what was in the past recognised as humanely possible. From Rebecca Aldington taking a whole two seconds off the previous 800m freestyle world record to Stephanie Rice, who now holds world records in both the 400m individual medley and the 200m individual medley, nothing is impossible.
Much of this is attributed to the Speedo’s new LZR swimsuit. Developed by NASA engineers, this ultrasonically bonded suit has a fabric which mimics sharkskin and an internal core stabiliser that streamlines the swimmer to achieve minimum water drag and boost speed. Despite all this, the controversy that surrounds the suit has caused some critics to label it as ‘technological doping’ amid claims that the suit increases buoyancy and therefore performance.
However it’s not just the suit - the National Aquatics Centre, affectionately termed the ‘water cube’, is a generous three metres deep which cuts down on choppiness in the water and helps athletes to swim faster. In addition, the pool is kept consistently at 28 degrees Celsius - the optimum temperature for racing.
Whatever the reason, a combined total of 36 world records and 74 Olympic records from all events have been smashed to date since the start of the Olympics - more than Sydney and Athens added together.
