Phelps suffers inevitable defeat against hype machine

ATHENS, Greece — This is what comes from magazine covers, that a 19-year-old might win eight Olympic medals and be asked if he is disappointed.

Michael Phelps sits there with a gold and two bronze, and still five more events to swim. Strangers with notebooks and microphones from multiple continents probe for words of frustration. He has none to give.

"You are an Olympic champion forever," he says Monday night. "No one can ever take that away from you."

Everyone soon leaves for the night. And NBC goes to work on a new Olympics promo.

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The quest for eight gold medals — passing Mark Spitz’ record haul of seven — was an impossible dream. Don Quixote chasing after windmills. A hype job that was useful advertising for Athens, reminding the public that it was time to watch swimming again. But also a set-up for failure, or the misguided perception of it. There are too many threats. Too many dives into the pool.

Phelps is a strong, lean, confident young man. But he is not a porpoise.

After a relay defeat Sunday, Phelps’ magic number for elimination from matching Spitz was already down to one Monday night, when he wandered into Ian Thorpe’s neighborhood — the 200-meter freestyle. Defending champion Pieter van den Hoogenband was there, too.

Phelps swam well. No American has ever swum a faster 200-meter freestyle. He finished third.

Spitz’ mark looks more unassailable all the time. Like the unbeaten season of the Miami Dolphins, or Joe DiMaggio’s hit streak.

"People don’t understand what goes on behind the scenes to actually be able to compete day after day in Olympic competition," said Thorpe, an Australian fish with no thought of ever challenging Spitz. "I would have loved to have seen Michael — I would have loved to have seen any athlete — achieve that, and hope I was there to witness it."

Instead, he was there to sink it.

"I had an opportunity. I tried to do something that he did. I tried to match that, but I didn’t," Phelps said.

"I guess you could say a little bit of the pressure is off."

Phelps had willingly made it a goal months ago, and let the media microwave oven work from there. He was assigned the job as cover boy of these Games, at least for the American public. But that was based on seven or eight gold medals. Surely, no one will grouse if he wins only … four?

NBC might be wondering. The Olympics have 13 days to go, and already two major U.S. plotlines have been damaged — Phelps run at the record and the men’s basketball team.

It is the women who could start making the noise. The softball juggernaut. The basketball powerhouse. And gymnastics always makes a nice centerpiece.

Ladies, please. Don’t anyone fall off the balance beam.

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There are more relays to come, more possible competition with Thorpe, who blows through the water with what Phelps calls a perfect stroke.

"The other night I was swimming next to him," Phelps said, "and the first thing I said (afterward) was, ‘Wow, he makes some big waves.’ "

The two present an Els-Woods type of argument, as to which one rules the water. The matter will hardly be resolved this week, and then swimming disappears off the radar screen again. It is a fleeting glimpse most will have of Phelps.

"To try to make a story that he is at all a failure ... he’s not," said teammate and backstroke gold medalist Aaron Peirsol. "To come away with eight medals, that is really the Spitzian accomplishment of our age."

Spitz’ record is safe. But no one need apologize, when by week’s end he might own more Summer Olympic medals than Puerto Rico in its history.