Michael Phelps

There really hasn't been that much to report on the actual Olympic front. Primarly because Canada has yet to win a medal, and secondarily, because of my working hours, I almost feel like I am missing everything, as there isn't really any live action going on until near the end of my shift.

Swimming, however, has been going on each morning (primetime for you back home), and I hope you have been following the Michael Phelps story. Here's a guy who, at 19 years of age in Athens, came within a whisker of tying Mark Spitz 1972 record of seven gold medals (and seven world records) in a single Olympic games. He ended up with 6 Gold medals, and a couple of Bronze.

Now, here in Beijing at 23, he has won seven straight Gold Medals (6 of them in world record times) and now has more Gold medals than any other Olympic athlete in histlory. As if that's not enough, it has been the way in which he has been winning that is astonishing. For most of the races, he has literally left the field far behind in his wake.

A couple of the races have been very close, and one relay required his anchor to miraculously come from behind with only a few yards to go. In that race, the top 5 teams all beat the previous world record.

This morning, he won his 7th Gold Medal in the 100m Butterfly (in an Olympic, but not World, record), with perhaps the most dramatic finish of any I have ever seen. He was not leading (not even that close) with less than 2 metres left. The leader's last stroke left him too close to the wall for another stroke, so he extended his hands and reached for the wall.

At the point when his finger tips were literally inches from the wall, Phelps' hands were in mid-stroke, extended out perpendicular to his shoulders, and more than a metre from the wall. Finishing his stroke brought his hands up to the wall and he ended up touching one-hundredth of a second faster than the other guy.

In every slow motion replay we saw, none of us could believe how he managed it, until we saw the under water camera, and it did look like he touched first, but we still couldn't believe it. It can't hurt that he has a 6'7" "wingspan" with his arms.

The looks on the faces in the stands were priceless, especially his mother, who had been holding up two fingers thinking he was going to finish second. Her mouth dropped, and she slowly slumped into her seat.

He has one race remaining, and if he wins it (in World record time) he will have won 8 Golds (with 7 World records) in a single games, eclipsing Spitz's record. We are setting up communications with Detroit right now, so that they can interview Mark Spitz to get his reaction to this race.